GENERAL SANTOS CITY - The construction of the $450 million coalfired power plant in the coastal town of Maasim in Sarangani is set to start early next year, a top official of Conal Holdings Corporation said. "We're now moving into the detailed design and engineering phase of the project. We've set the construction phase to begin early next year because we can't anymore delay the project.
The power outlook for Mindanao is not good if no new power generation facility will go on stream," Conal Holdings vice president Joseph Nocos said in a press briefing here. Nocos said they are presently finalizing the processing of various government requirements that will allow them to start the construction of the 200-megawatt (MW) coal-fired power plant project in Maasim. The plan, when operational, is expected to help ease Mindanao's lingering power deficit by the year 2014. According to Nocos, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources has recently issued an Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC) to Conal Holdings - of Alcantara group, and Thailand's largest power producer Electricity Generating Public Co. The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) said that Mindanao's power capacity stands at 1,331-MW and estimated a conservative annual demand growth of three percent. Nocos said "the power shortage will most likely be felt in 2011 and it will become worse if no new power generation facilities will rise until 2014." He also warned consumers to brace for a double whammy - higher power rates that are "reflective of the true cost of power in Mindanao" and power supply lack with no new power generation facility on stream by then.
Currently, the South Cotabato Electric Cooperative II (Socoteco II) charges less than P6 per kilowatthour to its consumers in the city, the whole of Sarangani province, and parts of South Cotabato. Nocos said the higher power rates would take a toll on consumers with the privatization of National Power Corporation's power plants as required by Republic Act 9136 or the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001 (EPIRA). Adding that once the NPC privatizes its Agus and Pulangi hydropower plants, it will lead to some increase in power costs as the investors will have to recover their investments, he explained. Already, more than half of Mindanao's power requirement comes from the hydropower plants, thus consumers in the area enjoy lower power rates compared to those in Luzon and the Visayas. Meanwhile, Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) Secretary Luwalhati Antonino said the government has not arrived on a firm decision to sell the hydropower plants to the private sector. She cited the proposal of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry against the privatization of the hydropower plants as reason for the non-committal in having the facilities under private hands. Antonino said that Congress is still studying the proposal to amend the EPIRA over fears raised by the business sector. Nocos said that once their coalfired power plant goes on stream, consumers in the service area of Socoteco II will enjoy at least a peso of reduction as the company will directly connect to the transmission facilities of the cooperative.
