KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews/ 1 May) – Top officials of the Therma Marine, Inc. (TMI) of Aboitiz Power have denied allegations they are charging “too high” the Cotabato Electric Cooperative (Cotelco) for the power the latter intends to draw from TMI’s barges located in Maco, Compostela Valley.
Theodore Bisnar, account officer of TMI, said that contrary to reports, the firm will only charge Cotelco P9 per kilowatt hour, not P16.11 as earlier reported.
Besides, Bisnar said the firm is only allowed a 10-percent return on rate base.
He explained that what they submitted to Cotelco was just a proposal as to how the payment must be made once the coop starts drawing at least 8 megawatts from the 200MW power barges.
“We submitted the proposal to be evaluated by the management. We tried to compute. Our proposal is for one month, but the payment can be done every week. So we requested Cotelco to submit to us their projected consumption of the power,” said Bisnar.
Earlier, Cotelco officials said the TMI demanded that they secure P14 million bond from the bank and an advance payment of some P4.5 million.
By May, the Cotelco will get a load dispatch of 28MW from the Mindanao grid of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP), an increase of 12.6MW from the 15.4MW last April.
The total power requirement for North Cotabato ranges from 32 to 36MW, according to Cotelco general manager Godofredo Homez.
Wilfredo Rodolfo, TMI corporate communications and community relations officer for Mindanao, said the rate impact would not be too high.
“If Cotelco has 93 percent of power from the National Power Corporation, then only seven percent from the TMI, then, the rate impact is too small. But if it buys so much power from the TMI, well, that’s the time that the rate impact would be high,” said Rodolfo.
According to Homez, with an additional power from TMI, power consumers in North Cotabato will only expect a one-peso increase per kwh in their electric bill.
This, however, does not guarantee that the province will no longer experience brownouts.
“With at least 350MW power deficiency in Mindanao this May, even if we buy power from TMI but we receive less load dispatch from the Mindanao grid, still, there would be rotating blackouts,” said Homez.
Since April 19, when Pulangi 4 hydroelectric power plant in Bukidnon province underwent preventive maintenance, North Cotabato experiences eight-hour rotating blackouts daily: five hours during daytime and three hours during night time.
This is despite the fact that the province is host to two geothermal power plants owned by the Energy Development Corporation (EDC).
Vice Mayor Joseph Evangelista, presiding chair of this city’s Sangguniang Panlungsod, filed last Friday a civil case at the Regional Trial Court Branch 23 here against Energy Secretary Jose Almendras and some power firm executives for their failure to prioritize Kidapawan City and the service areas of Cotelco 25 percent of the power generated by the EDC’s geothermal power plants. (Malu Cadeliña Manar / MindaNews)