UBIC BAY FREEPORT, Philippines - The Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) assured investors Wednesday that electricity supply in this freeport will be sufficient this year, even as the rest of the country may possibly face outages in the summertime.
SBMA Administrator and CEO Armand Arreza said that while the power demand will be at its peak in summer, Subic's power generation capacity has been boosted by the re-commissioning in late December of the 116-megawatt diesel power plant here.
''There is a lot of fear and apprehensions that within two years, the country as a whole would face energy shortage starting 2011,'' Arreza said. ''But as always, the SBMA has taken the necessary steps ahead of whatever problem that may disrupt the robust economy in the Subic Bay Freeport.''
''Now, with the upgraded diesel power plant, the growth of businesses here will surely remain unhampered,'' Arreza added.
He said the five-year lease contract for the 10-hectare property where the Subic diesel power plant is located, was auctioned off and later awarded to One Subic Power Generation Corp. (OSPGC), as the contract among the SBMA, National Power Corp. (Napocor), and former plant operator Enron Power Corp. expired in 2009.
