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MANILA – State-owned National Power Corp. will require P17 billion to provide electricity to 221 off-grid locations across the country next year.
Froilan A. Tampinco, Napocor president, said the company’s Small Power Utilities Group will spend the money on "power generation, transmission activities, fuel, subsidies, operations and management [contracts], some capital investment and personal services."
For this year, Napocor received P15 billion for SPUG’s operations.
Each consumer helps subsidize SPUG’s operations through the universal charge in their electricity bills.
"We cannot incur losses all the time. We want to spur the necessary economic activity that will allow the people to pay the cost of electricity," Tampinco said.
Off-grid areas are islands and remote areas that are not connected to the country's virtual power transmission highways, which deliver electricity from major generating plants to distribution utilities.
SPUG operates 290 relatively small power plants in these areas with a total capacity of about 278 megawatts. Most of these generating facilities run on expensive oil-based fuel.
To help bring down the cost of power generation in these areas, Napocor has started to review proposals from some groups on technologies that can improve the efficiency of SPUG plants, Tampinco said.
"We have received proposals for making diesel, bunker to make them more efficient. There are new technologies. This is something that will allow us to save on fuel expenses," he said.
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