Mirant to invest P235M on Baguio ecozone’s power lines

Mirant Philippines Corp., the country’s largest private power producer, will invest P235 million ($4.3 million) to upgrade the transmission facilities supplying power to the Baguio City Economic Zone (BCEZ).

At present, the National Power Corp. (Napocor) and Mirant Philippines jointly supply electricity to BCEZ under a power marketing agreement.

"This investment works toward a more reliable power supply once an efficient transmission system is in place," Mirant Philippines vice president for external affairs and business development Paul Flake said.

He said, "a more reliable power supply could help motivate potential investors to economically develop and locate businesses in the zone."

There is an existing tri-partite memorandum of agreement (MOA) among Mirant Philippines, Napocor and the Philippine Economic Zone Authority which provides for the construction of a new eight-kilometer (km), and a 69-kilovolt(kV)-transmission line from the Itogon sub-station to the BCEZ.

The MOA also calls for the upgrading of the existing Itogon sub-station and the rehabilitation of the existing 69-kV La Trinidad-Beckel-BCEZ transmission line (11 km) and installation of a new sub-station at the BCEZ.

Falke said the construction of the eight-km line is expected to be completed by the first half of 2004. It will be the main transmission line delivering power to the zone. The existing 11-kilometer line that Mirant is refurbishing would serve as backup. "Our goal is to provide an uninterrupted flow of power to the BCEZ," said Flake.

Mirant Philippines, a wholly owned subsidiary of Atlanta-based Mirant, owns more than 2,000 megawatts of installed generating capacity nationwide.

It also has a stake in the natural gas-fired 1,200-megawatt Ilijan power plant which gets gas from Malampaya. – Donnabelle Gatdula