Oriental Energy to put up P2.5-billion power plant

MANILA, Philippines - Oriental Energy & Power Generation Co., a unit of publicly-listed mining firm Oriental Peninsula Resources Group, plans to construct a P2.5-billion hydropower project in Panay Island in the Visayas, a top company official said.

Caroline Tanchay, Oriental Energy president, said the project is in line with the Department of Energy’s efforts to address the acute power supply problem in Aklan province, which hosts the country’s number one tourist destination, Boracay Island.

Tanchay said the hydropower project would contribute to the island’s goal of achieving self-sufficiency in its power supply in the face of a looming power crisis in  Visayas and Mindanao.

“Panay currently has the most expensive power cost and the lowest supply  in the Philippines because it has no indigenous power supply sources. We offer the best solution to the area’s problems because we offer clean and cheap energy,’’ she said.

Tanchay noted that 70 percent of Panay Iisland’s power supply is currently being supplied by diesel barges.

Oriental Energy’s project was among the estimated $1 billion worth of renewable energy (RE) contracts with a combined capacity of 379 megawatts (MW) approved by the DOE on Monday.

Oriental Energy’s hydropower project in Madalag, Aklan will have a capacity of 18 MW and would have first priority among power sources in the sale of electricity to Aklan’s commercial and residential consumers.

Tanchay said the project would ensure sufficient and cheap supply of power to Aklan.

In last year’s Energy Summit in Bacolod City, Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes called for private sector investments in Negros and Panay, which were depending largely on power supply from the nearby Leyte province.

In the summit, the DOE reported that Panay Island needed 189 MW of power but its dependable capacity was only pegged at 127.3 MW. The DOE estimated that Panay would need at least 30 MW of new power supply to cope with the island’s growing demand for electricity.