City officials agree to source power from biomass plant
No city official objected to the plan of sourcing out additional five megawatts (MW) of power from the biomass plant of Central Azucarera de San Antonio in Passi City.
This was revealed by City Mayor Jerry Treñas yesterday to members of the city hall press.
"Everyone is interested to get additional power for the city," the mayor said.
The power offered by the the sugar central is cheaper. They will sell a kilowatt of power for only P3.00. At present, the city consumers pay more than P13.00 per kilowatthour.
"Even if Transco will collect P1.00 every kilowatt hour as transmission charge, it would still be cheaper. City officials are interested in such offer," said Treñas.
The chief executive is set to meet this week with Steven Chan, owner of the Central Azucarera de San Antonio, and other officials in the power industry such as the Department of Energy (DoE), National Transmission Commission (Transco) and the city's lone power distributor Panay Electric Company Inc. (Peco) to finalize the plan.
Initially, Peco reportedly is also favorable to the idea of buying additional power from the sugar central. The availability of the power to be sold to the city will depend on the capacity of the Transco transmission lines in Sta. Barbara.
Power produced from the biomass plant is renewable energy. It is the only renewable energy available at hand to the city.
Previously, a firm offered to convert the city's garbage into power, but it has withdrawn because the volume of garbage available here is not enough to produce power.
Treñas said the city has to decide immediately as the milling season comes.
It was learned that power from the sugar central is only available during the milling season which starts on November.
The power generated from the biomass plant comes from the sugar cane waste.
"The biomass plant could provide the city additional power within a five-month period. Nevertheless, it is still a big help to the city's consumers considering the rate being offered," Treñas said.