Treñas: Napocor generator sets may lower power rates in City
Power rate in the city may be lowered once the plan of the National Power Corporation (Napocor) to lease 20 generator sets with a capacity of one megawatt each is materialized.
Mayor Jerry Treñas yesterday told City Hall reporters that Napocor will sell power from their generating sets to Panay Electric Company (Peco) for only P2.90 per kilowatt hour.
Treñas said the rate is very much lower compared to the present rate in which Peco is getting from Panay Power Corporation (PPC).
The leasing of twenty generator sets by Napocor was one of the solutions reached by the various stakeholders in the power industry to address the current generation deficiency experienced by the city.
Of the 20 generator sets, 15 will be used to generate 15 megawatts that could fill up the deficiency of power from PPC and Napocor's diesel power plants. The five remaining generator sets will be reserved to be used as stand by source in case any of the generator sets being used conks out, said Treñas.
Treñas said though the generator sets are also powered by diesel, Napocor will only charge less to the city as its sincere effort to help the city's power needs.
The idea of leasing generator sets by Napocor was reached after politicians in Davao refused to have the 28 megawatts Power Barge 104 transferred to Iloilo.
Earlier, Treñas along with the city's business sector lobbied for the transfer of PB 104 here to augment the city's power needs.
The mayor added that the mixed power supply generated from the generator sets and power provided by PPC will also cut the transmission charge imposed by the National Transmission Commission (Transco). Transco charges Peco P1.00 for every kilowatt hour of power coming from the Cebu-Negros-Panay Grid.
As planned the generator sets will connect directly to Peco's 69KV lines, thus it would no longer pass to Transco's transmission lines.
Treñas said it could not be ascertained yet on how PECO will come up with their computations on the monthly bills. The computation will be based on the number of kilowatts provided by Napocor's generating sets to Peco and how many kilowatts is generated by PPC to Peco.
Treñas said Napocor is trying to speed up the lease of the generator sets for the city's use. However, they have to adhere to the Procurement Act for the lease plan. The city government has no share of expenses relative to the plan to lease 20 generating sets which will stay in the city for one year period, said Treñas.
The rotating power outages currently experienced by Peco consumers is brought about by the supply deficiency in the Cebu-Negros-Panay Grid, which in turn is caused by the maintenance works on several power plants in the Visayas operated by Napocor, and the preventive maintenance schedule on one engine of PPC which will take two months.
The Palinpinon Geothermal Power Plant in Negros Oriental and other power barges assigned to Iloilo are undergoing scheduled preventive maintenance. The Pinamucan Power Plant is only producing 40 megawatts (MW) instead of its 110MW rated capacity, affecting Napocor's 15MW commitment to Peco.