NPC's Boac Diesel Power Plant Clarifies

Engr. Nelson Molina, Superintendent of NPC's power plant in Boac stated, in a meeting held this morning at the Capitol Session Hall, that Aggreko's lease contract with NPC for the 3MW generating sets that expired on January 7, 2010, will now be renewed on a monthly basis, pending the deployment of the new gensets from the new winning bidder, Cummins Sales and Services Phils. Inc. (see previous post).

It will be recalled that Aggreko's 3MW modular generators from Palawan restored the supply of electricity in Marinduque on October 25, 2009, on the basis of a prior lease agreement with Aggreko that expired recently. Molina also stated that the validity of the new lease agreement with Cummins will take effect on the date it receives NPC's notice to proceed and as soon as the test and commissioning are completed, a process that could take about a month, he said.

In view of this development, NPC says its dependable capability is still 8.5MW at present, correcting an earlier issued written statement made by the said power company that from January 7, 2010"NPC's capability is only 5.5 MW against prevailing demand of 7 MW or a power shortage of 1.5MW", a statement further supported by a detailed Grid Capability Report.

As expected, 1-5 hour power outages did occur in various parts of the province from January 6 as scheduled by Marelco. As of today, however, the situation appears to have stabilized.

The meeting was called by the Committee on Public Utilities of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan and was presided by board member, Jose F. Alvarez. It chiefly tackled a separate issue on the full settlement of an outstanding balance of Marelco to Napocor that has balooned to over P100 million, a large part of which is being hotly contested by the electric cooperative.

The meeting was attended by representatives from Marelco, NPC, SP, MSC, Marinduque Chamber of Commerce and Industry and media.