$80-M solar power plant to rise in Pampanga

SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga, Philippine – An $80-million solar power plant will be constructed in Apalit town in this province to provide cheaper power to communities served by the Pampanga Electric Cooperative 3 (Pelco 3).

The project will be constructed on an eight-hectare land in Barangay San Juan, Jun Tetangco, president of Isabel Power Inc., told The STAR yesterday.

The groundbreaking for the project will be held tomorrow.

Tetangco said the solar power plant is expected to be fully operational by yearend or early next year.

“It will provide about 10 megawatts of power to communities served by Pelco 3,” he said adding the project would use Canadian technology.

The National Electrification Administration requires power firms, including cooperatives, to purchase power from solar power firms to persuade investors to invest in environment-friendly power production.

Tetangco said his firm estimated that the rate from solar power would be about P9 per kilowatt hour, much lower than the P20 per kilowatt hour charged by Pelco 3 to its consumers.

Pelco 3 supplies power to the towns of Apalit, Masantol, Minalin, Macabebe, Sto. Tomas and San Simon, which need about 50 megawatts of electricity.

“Because the solar plant would produce initially only about 10 megawatts, we are leaving it to Pelco 3 to whom it would funnel the less expensive solar electricity,” Tetangco said.

He said his solar power firm was named after his grandmother, Isabel Tetangco, from whom he inherited the property where the plant would be put up.

Tetangco bared plans to put up a 25-megawatt turbine power plant in Apalit to serve consumers in Pampanga’s third district.