Aboitiz unit to refund P14.25M to Zamcelco

Business MirrorPublished on Wednesday, 03 April 2013 18:39

THERMA Marine Inc. (TMI), a subsidiary of AboitizPower Corp., will refund P14.25 million to Zamboanga Electric Cooperative (Zamcelco).

The refund pertains to the order by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) for the TMI supply contract with the cooperative.

TMI and Zamcelco also filed a joint manifestation before the commission to effect the refund.

“The joint manifestation details the proposed scheme on how to apply the refund amounting to P14.25 million [value-added tax inclusive] which is the difference between the final and the provisional rates approved by the ERC covering the period from April 2012 to December 2012,” TMI said on Wednesday.

Zamcelco contracts 18 megawatts (MW) from TMI to augment supply from the National Power Corp. (Napocor). The co-op’s monthly obligations to TMI is more than P50 million. State-owned Napocor supplies the majority of the power needs of Zamcelco and all distribution utilities and electric cooperatives in Mindanao.

Zamcelco’s peak demand is more than 85 MW, while Mindanao’s current demand hovers around 1,100 MW a day. The bulk of this need is supplied by Napocor and is augmented by 200 MW of combined supply from TMI-owned barges moored in Nasipit in Agusan del Norte and Maco in Compostela Valley.

In the said manifestation, TMI may apply the refund amount to the outstanding obligations of Zamcelco. The proposed scheme is now under ERC’s review and, once approved, TMI will fully comply with the ERC-approved timetable.

Since January 2013, TMI has already been billing the final rate approved by ERC.

Being oil-fired, the role of peaking plants like that of Therma Marine is to provide backup and anciliary power to the grid. But with no other capacity left to help the electric cooperatives, TMI is now running almost like a baseload power plant supplying almost 24 hours of power to cooperatives like Zamcelco.

The growing population and economy of Mindanao has forced demand for power to outstrip supply. The summer months has also posed challenges to the hydroelectric power plants around Lake Lanao, which supply more than half of the power needs of the island.   source

Written by Lenie Lectura, Manuel Cayon and Bong Fabe