DMCI beefs up power capacity for Palawan

by Myrna Velasco November 30, 2015
http://www.mb.com.ph/dmci-beefs-up-power-capacity-for-palawan/

The distress of Southern Palawan on power interruptions may soon be eased with the decision of DMCI Power Corporation to beef up its capacity for the area by 4.42 megawatts.

The company, in a statement to the media, has announced that it is already scheduled to build the planned diesel power plant in the town of Brooke’s Point.

According to DMCI Power President Nestor D. Dadivas, the electricity to be generated from the plant will satiate the requirements of at least three towns – Brooke’s Point, Bataraza, and Sofronio Espanola.

He added “this business decision is meant to ensure that these towns will enjoy stable and dependable power.”

Dadivas further noted these southern portions of Palawan are considered “underserved areas”, thus, this would relatively be part of the company’s missionary electrification commitment.

He stated that under current circumstances, “these towns have to endure power instability due to line connection problems and insufficient supply in the entire province.”

The DMCI Power executive expounded this would be “a satellite facility that aims to augment the capacity of the company’s plant in Irawan, Puerto Princesa City.”

DMCI Power previously won a bidding to supply the electricity needs of Palawan’s main city, but opposition to its proposed coal technology had delayed implementation timeframe on its proposed facility.

With the intervention of the Department of Energy (DOE) on an “Augmentation Plan”, the company was earlier prompted to deploy seven (7) new generating sets to provide 27 megawatts of power that shall cater to the needs of Palawan Electric Cooperative (PALECO) consumers.

DMCI Power has noted that it inked an agreement with state-run National Power Corporation and PALECO on the provision of the required base-load and peaking power to meet the island grid’s demand.

Dadivas added in the event that there will be line outage, the three towns to be served by the new diesel plant “will continue to have power, as they will no longer have to wait for power to become available from Puerto Princesa.”