Quezon leaders assure protection of power assets

LUCENA CITY – Leaders of Quezon province’s business and local government sectors cited recently continuing efforts by the Arroyo administration to upgrade the country’s power generation and transmission capabilities even as they assured energy officials of full cooperation in the bid to protect valuable power assets.

At the recent multi-sector meeting, energy officials led by National Transmission Corp. (Transco) president Dr. Alan T. Ortiz, local leaders said joint efforts with police and military authorities "will be put in place to ensure that these assets are protected from sabotage and pilferage".

Quezon Governor Wilfredo Enverga and Rep. Lyn Punzalan said the cooperation "has become even more vital since most of the country’s premiere generation assets are located in this province." Quezon houses the 735-Megawatt plant of Mirant Pagbilao Corp. in Pagbilao town and the 440-Megawatt Quezon Power (Philippines) Ltd. Plant in Mauban town. Leaders of the Quezon Chamber of Commerce and Industry led by businessman Vidal Ng also expressed a similar support.

Ortiz earlier called for the joint efforts during the unveiling before provincial leaders of the Luzon Island Transmission Augmentation Program (LISTA). The P81.6-billion program aims to transform the Luzon power grid into a highly reliable and efficient electricity highway over the next decade.

Ortiz told Quezon leaders that several LISTA projects have already begun implementation. Among these are Batangas Transmission Reinforcement Project (BTRP), the Biñan-Dasmariñas transmission line upgrading project.

The BTRP will strengthen the existing transmission network’s southern corridor for an even more reliable transmission of power from Southern Luzon’s independent power producers. The Biñan-Dasmariñas project, meanwhile, will increase the existing transfer capacity by about four times.

Several medium-term projects in the region were also unveiled. These include the P1.3-billion Kalayaan-Makban 230 kV transmission line upgrading project, the P2-billion Luzon-Mindoro interconnection project, and the P270-million Biñan-Sucat 230kV line upgrade.

With these projects, the region will be better able to "export" power to the Metro Manila areas which consume some 56 percent of the total load, Ortiz said. He said these would "prevent transmission bottlenecks which result from the Metro Manila demand and which are transported from the region’s generation sources."