Manila Times.net
BY EUAN PAULO C. AÑONUEVO REPORTER
STATE-OWNED National Power Corp. (Napocor) wants the government to pay for its past costs in maintaining the Bataan nuclear power plant so it could have funds for its island and off-grid area operations.
Froilan Tampinco, Napocor president, said the company has asked the government to reimburse it some P4.2 billion in advances for the maintenance of the mothballed nuclear plant.
“We will use that exclusively for SPUG areas, for fuel purchases,” he said, referring to Napocor’s Small Power Utilities Group, which provides power to islands and missionary areas that are not connected to the main grid.
Because of their limited markets and commercial viability, consumers subsidize SPUG’s operations in their electricity bills.
Under the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001, Napocor would be left with SPUG while Power Sector Assets and Liabilities and Management Corp. disposes of state-owned power plants.
Napocor, however, has had difficulties in sourcing funds after the Department of Justice ruled that the state-owned firm could only raise additional debt for refinancing activities. Also denting Napocor’s finances was the Energy Regulatory Commission decision to cut the P5 billion universal charge the state-owned firm sought for this year.
Last month, electric cooperatives that source from SPUG said that a number of their service areas have already been hit by severe outages as a result of Napocor’s financial woes.
Tampinco said the government already agreed to reimburse its advances for the Bataan plant’s maintenance “hopefully within the next few weeks.”
To help bridge the company’s funding requirements, Napocor entered into separate agreements with the local government units (LGUs) in SPUG areas such as Cebu, Siquijor, Palawan and Romblon to shoulder the firm’s fuel purchases.
Tampinco said Napocor would offset the advances against the LGUs’ electricity bills.
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