Power projects boost Bataan development efforts

Local officials and businessmen in Bataan have lauded the government’s 10-year power development project, of which the P82-billion Luzon Island Transmission Augmentation (LISTA) program is a major component, citing the importance of a stable and reliable power supply to the province’s bid for accelerated economic growth.

Balanga City Mayor Albert Garcia said the government’s energy programs "are vital to the city’s planned industrial and technology zone envisioned to draw investors and create more jobs for this booming Central Luzon city".

The zone, Garcia said, will house light to fairly heavy industrial concerns. He said the assurance of stable and efficient power supply is a crucial component of the marketing strategy for the zone.

Garcia met recently with National Transmission Corp. (Transco) president Alan Ortiz, who briefed local leaders on the government’s program for the continuing build-up of power generation capacities and for the efficient distribution of power through a world-class nationwide power transmission highway.

Garcia said these power initiatives have already helped spur the entry of new investments and the creation of jobs in the city. He said some 1,500 business establishments were set up in Balanga over the past three years generating an estimated 5,000 new jobs. The technology city project is expected to eclipse this record, Garcia said.

Ortiz, meanwhile, assured Garcia and local business leaders that the entire Luzon island has a dependable electricity supply of an estimated 9,350 megawatts (MW). He said that since the entire island’s peak demand is 6,454 MW, there is a comfortable reserve of over 2,000 MW.

Ortiz added that despite the comfortable reserve, the government is building up new capacities to ensure that power supply copes with the anticipated overall economic growth. Ortiz said that the on-going rehabilitation of the Tiwi and Mak-Ban geothermal plants is expected to add 215 MW by December this year.