BY ADRIAN P. NEMES III
The Central Negros Electric Cooperative has agreed to extend its present agreement with Kepco-Salcon Power Corporation for another year, its acting general manager, Dan Pondevilla, said yesterday.
But Pondevilla said that instead of the 40-megawatt base load supply as stipulated in their current contract with Kepco, they reduced it to 20MW only. He had earlier said that Ceneco needs only 20MW base load to supply enough power to consumers.
President and chief executive officer Jong Ryon Yoon of Kepco-SPC, in a letter to Pondevilla, said the firm gave a significant performance in delivering secure, reliable, and affordable supply, for the last 10 years.
Yoon also assured that the extension of the contract shall be under similar terms and conditions as their current one, and will be beneficial to Ceneco and its member-consumers.
The Power Watch Negros Association, however, is against the extension of the power deal, and called it “over contracting and detrimental, with a danger of economic repercussion”.
Pondevilla said the contact price was approved by the Energy Regulatory Commission.
Aside from the current 40MW supply agreement with Kepco, Ceneco also has an existing contract of 24MW with the Cebu-based coal-fired power plant that will expire in 2022.
Other contracts entered into by Ceneco include the 20MW with Green Core Geothermal Inc. in Negros Oriental until 2025, and 35MW from Palm Concepcion Power Corp. in Iloilo, that will end in 2025.
For its peaking load, the firm contracted 18.9MW from the Central Negros Power Reliability Inc., formerly Energreen Power Development and Management Corp., based in Bago City, Negros Occidental, until 2032.
On April 12, Kepco also won the bidding as supplier for its 20MW base load requirement for the next 10 years, with the power delivery supposed to start yesterday but it was halted due to a complaint filed by Konsyumer, an electricity consumers’ group, before the Department of Energy. Pondevilla said they are waiting for guidance and recommendations of the DOE on the matter.*
