City's power problem partly solved, says Treñas
Iloilo City's sole power distributor Panay Electric Company (Peco), reportedly, has already signed interconnection agreements with the National Transmission Corporation (Transco) and National Power Corporation (NPC).
With the signing of the Transmission Supply Agreement (TSA) and the Power Supply Agreement (PSA) it is expected that Peco could already start getting part of its power needs from NPC on June 26, 2007.
Mayor Jerry Treñas said he was informed by Transco President Arthur Aguilar of the said development.
Aguilar informed the mayor through a text message when the latter was in a foreign trip with President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
At present, Peco gets its power from independent power provider Mirant-Panay Power Corporation.
There is an available power of 15 megawatts from the NPC's Cebu-Negros-Panay grid and another 16 megawatts from Power Barge 101 in Loboc.
Peco needs to sign a TSA with Transco for the installation of transmission lines before they can avail of low cost power from the NPC. Once the TSA is formalized between Transco and Peco, the latter then signs another contract, the Power Supply Agreement (PSA).
Treñas said he was informed that the interconnection will proceed on June 26, there will be no more ceremonial signing of the two contracts, he said.
However, there was no available copies of the contracts between Peco, Transco and NPC as of yesterday.
With the forthcoming interconnection, Treñas said, part of the power problem of the city is solved. But he insisted for the city to have have its own base load to accommodate the growing power needs of Iloilo City.
With the entry of number of investments in the city especially the call centers, the city needs a coal-fired power plant to sustain its power needs. The interconnection is only a temporary solution to the power needs of the city, said Treñas.