By Cong Corrales |
MEDINA, Misamis Oriental (MindaNews/17 May) — Steag State Power Inc. has so far not shown interest in the impending sale next month of the Agus and Pulangi hydropower complexes under the Electric Power Industry Reform Act.
In an interview, Ma. Teresa Alegrio, Steag community relations manager said that their company would support the call of the Oro Chamber of Commerce to defer the sale of the two power complexes.
“Even if we wanted to we cannot do it legally. As member of Oro Chamber we will support the deferment of the sale of Agus and Pulangi,” she said.
Alegrio added that they have their own plans of expanding their power generation capacity and that this time it would be through biomass.
“Maybe biomass. As you know, not all of our plants are coal-fired,” she said.
Steag runs a coal-fired power plant in Villanueva, Misamis Oriental.
“We have been generating at least 20 percent of the energy requirement of the entire island of Mindanao for five years now,” Alegrio said.
She, however, clarified that they would not be building another plant site but will locate the biomass power facility inside their current power plant compound.
“These plans are all in keeping pace with the energy requirement needs of the island by the DoE (Department of Energy). We should keep pace,” she said.
Alegrio said that last year Mindanao was second only to Luzon in terms of power generation owing to Steag’s eight-percent contribution to the power needs of the entire island.
“We have to increase our output because the overall trend in the power requirement of Mindanao is also rising,” she said.
She also said that they target to increase their overall power output contribution from 150 to 200 megawatts by next year thus the plan for expansion. (Cong B. Corrales/MindaNews)
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