Napocor approves transfer of power units to Vis-Min

The National Power Corp. (Napocor) has approved the acquisition of 14 power generating units from the San Roque multi-purpose project in Pangasinan for their transfer in the Visayas and Mindanao areas where power supply is reaching critical levels.

"We were able to get approval from the Napocor board to bring those 14 power units from San Roque to small islands in the Visayas and Mindanao," Napocor president Rogelio Murga told The STAR.

Murga, however, said they have yet to identify the exact areas where these power generating units will be utilized.

But he added that Napocor is expected to firm up the transfer of the units within this month.

The 345-megawatt (MW) San Roque plant consists of three main generating facilities each capable of producing 115 MW of electricity.

Earlier this month, government tried but failed to bid out the transfer of the Pinamucan power facility in Batangas to Dingle in Iloilo as all the interested parties exceeded the P535-million budget ceiling set for the transfer.

Despite an excess capacity of 1,253 MW as of end-2001, Napocor had forecast the occurrence of blackouts in the Visayas region, specifically in the Panay Islands of Aklan, Antique, Capiz, Iloilo and Guimaras, starting next year.

For Panay Islands alone, there is a foreseen seven percent annual average power growth rate from 178 MW in 2002 to 190 MW in 2003, 204 MW in 2004 and will further climb to 220 MW in 2005. For the entire Visayas region, a total of 360 MW of additional capacity will be needed in the next 10 years.

The Mindanao region, meanwhile, is seen to suffer from a similar power shortage in 2005, while the situation can be experienced in Luzon by 2008.

A Napocor official earlier said there was initially a plan to transfer one unit of San Roque to the tourism resort island of Boracay. This is on top of at least three other power deals being worked out by the government to help bridge the power gap in the Visayas.

These projects include a 7.5-MW Trans-Asia diesel power plant to be installed in Boracay Island in March 2004; a 50-MW Victorias bioenergy plant in Negros by Oct. 2006; and a 100-MW Southern Leyte geothermal power project by April 2004.

Mirant Philippines will also put up a 12.5-MW power facility in Aklan province under a 20-year build-own-operate (BOO) agreement with the Aklan Electric Cooperative Inc. (Akelco).