JPE backs bid to tap BNPP; pushes power initiatives

BUSINESS MIRROR

SUNDAY, 19 DECEMBER 2010 21:20 BUTCH FERNANDEZ / REPORTER

SENATE President Juan Ponce Enrile has backed a congressional clamor to harness the mothballed Bataan Nuclear Power Plant in the face of an expected energy-capacity shortfall.

“I am in favor of it,” Enrile told reporters after at least 153 congressmen signed a resolution asking the Aquino government to revive the P2-billion idled nuke plant in Morong, Bataan.

Enrile disclosed that he is even hosting a meeting with the head of the State Grid Corp. of China (SGCC), Mr. Liu Zhenya, who is visiting the country next month, to learn more about other possible alternative power sources that the Philippines could tap to plug the anticipated power-supply gap.

The SGCC is part of the Razon-led Monte Oro Grid Consortium that won the 25-year contract to run the National Transmission Corp. after submitting a $3.95-billion bid in an auction conducted by the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Mananagement Corp. for the Philippine power grid last December 12, 2007.

“I am going to host lunch for Mr. Liu and from him we should learn, because he is a knowledgeable person about power,” the Senate chief said.

Enrile explained, for instance, that China has the biggest hydroelectric power system in the world. “They have the huge dam construction in the Himalayan mountains. They are anticipating the future and they are now going to construct many nuclear plants. Why? Because fossil fuel is not infinite, it is a finite material and sometime in the future this will be gone.”

At the same time, Enrile predicted that coal, which is still used in a number of National Power Corp.’s generating plants, “will be very expensive.”

He added, “fossil fuel, like diesel, crude, bunker would be very expensive. The only thing that will be cheap will be water which comes every time we have the rains. In the temperate countries they have the snow caps that will melt.”

He pointed out that in most advanced countries, “their governments want their people to be assured of a better life so they are going to construct more nuclear plants.”

“But in our case, we are afraid. The environmentalists ask: where are you going to stockpile the fuel and spent fuel? If other countries can do it, why can we not do the same thing?” the Senate President asked.