Canada government offers loan to upgrade Transco lines

The Canadian government said yesterday it is willing to extend a loan to the National Transmission Corp. (Transco) to improve the country’s power transmission lines.

In a press conference, Canadian Ambassador to the Philippines Robert Collette said his government, through its lending arm, Export Development of Canada, is willing to extend loans to Transco to finance Canada-related projects in the Philippines.

"We can easily tap EDC to provide funds if the National Power Corp. (Napocor) and Transco will need money to finance projects with Canadian firms," Collette said. He did not say how much the Canadian government would lend to Napocor.

Collette accompanied Quebec-based SBB International Inc. yesterday to introduce the latter’s high-technology product to Napocor and Transco.

SBB executive vice president Roger Cartier said the product, which will provide emergency restoration system (ERS) for toppled and damaged transmission towers of Transco, will reduce losses incurred by the power firm.

The ERS that SBB is introducing through its Philippine representative company K Energy will amount to $40,000 to $75,000, way below compared to the losses being shouldered by Transco due to power outages brought about by toppled and damaged towers.

The product, which is made of high-grade aluminum structures, can be used by Napocor to 50 years. It took SBB six years to develop the technology and spent $1 million for research and development.

Cartier said Napocor and Transco officials are receptive to the idea to use this kind of technology.

Napocor has been using a similar technology since 1994 contracting a US-based firm to provide some 58 ERS sets, mostly in the Lahar-stricken areas in Northern Luzon.

So far, Napocor has 22 ERS sets in Northern Luzon, 16 in Southern Luzon and 20 in its engineering department. But Napocor said it has been using similar ERS sets in Visayas and Mindanao. Some of the ERS set to be retired and will need to be replaced.

As this developed, Ambassador Collette said they are convincing Canadian power firms to take part in the privatization of Transco and Napocor’s generation assets.

Transco president Alan T. Ortiz is now in Montreal, Canada, to conduct a roadshow for the sale of Transco assets.

Collette said two years ago, Quebec-based SM Group signified an interest to participate in the Transco bidding, but was uncertain whether the group has renewed its interest to bid for Transco assets.

The Canadian envoy admitted that there are very few Canadian investors engaged in Philippine power sector. So far, there are only at least three Canadian power-related firms doing business in the Philippines. These are Digital Meter engaged in power measurement, Iris Technology and Vibro System which are both engaged in monitoring of turbine.

However, he said there are at least 10-15 transmission firms in Canada that the Philippine government can tap to join the Transco bidding.

"We are encouraging Canadian companies to look at the Philippines as an investment alternative. We are urging them to consider the Philippines as their option as there are a lot of opportunities here," he said.