SIQUIJOR, Feb 18 (PIA)-– The Siquijor
Island Power Corporation (SIPCOR) with its new 6.464-megaWatt diesel
plants started operation as power provider of Siquijor province.
In its opening
ceremony with Department of Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho Petilla, he
wants to make sure all the plants that are put in the province will materialize
not only for this year but in the long term.
The long term solution
is for SIPCOR to come in and when it does, he said, he wants to make sure they
operate properly and that the energy needs will be provided for.
Petilla said the move
is in line with the government’s thrust to provide electricity to all
especially SPUG (Small Power Utilities Group) areas.
There are areas in the
country where electricity is eight hours a day, some 16 hours, and in small
islands, 6 hours, he said pointing out that the thrust right now is to
provide 24 hours electricity in areas where NPC SPUG is operating and reduce or
eliminate brown-outs as the legacy they can leave before the President’s term
ends.
Economic activity now
is measured by electricity consumption. The more electricity you actually
consumed can be a gauge whether something is moving in that area, Petilla
added.
He said Siquijor
province has now four power stations, each with a capacity of 1.6 MW compared
to the whole province’s power demand of 3.4 MW.
The two stations,
constructed, owned and managed by SIPCOR house the brand new bunker-fired power
generating facilities with installed capacity of 3.2 MW. They are located in
Siquijor and Lazi towns.
The power stations
will be interconnected with the 13.8-kiloVolt network of the Province of
Siquijor Electric Cooperative (PROSIELCO), which has been serving a total of
22,503 consumers.
With the SIPCOR’s
plant, consumers will still pay the same government-subsidized rate of P
11.2269 per kilowatt-hour, added Petilla.
As you progress, which
with no doubt will happen because of the present leadership, subsidy will
progress too, Petilla said explaining that without the subsidy, consumers would
pay as much as P20.30 per kilowatt-hour.
He said Siquijor
province alone gets some P118 million a year in subsidy which will still
increase once the economic activity of the island increases which also brings
reduction of electricity rate.
Starting August this
year, the Secretary assured there will be no more brown-outs in Siquijor.
But he said, this will
only happen if everybody works together and make sure that brown-outs will
never happen again in the province, he said especially calling the LGUs,
PROSIELCO, and the national government’s cooperation.
“The solutions
are there, the coop is not a problem. Usahay lang ang cooperatiba
mapolitika (but sometimes the cooperative can politicized),” Petilla said as he
calls local leaders not to politicize the coop and be serious in giving service
to the people.
Petilla said his visit
to the island was to make sure that Sipcor will not be delayed in the
commissioning and that all the promised power generation and facilities will be
put in place.
He said Napocor will
have to leave Siquijor as this was programmed to be privatized, but meantime
the island will still be backed by the firm’s power service until stable power
supply will be availed by Siquijodnons,” Petilla added.
PROSIELCO General
Manager Laureen Malolot said, SIPCOR has a 20-year power supply agreement with
the cooperative, and that it is now expected to address the present generation
capacity requirements and even future demand of the province.
(mbcn/RAC/PIA7-Siquijor)