The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
By Riza Lozada
The Department of Energy (DOE) and the Consunji group’s Semirara Mining and Power Corporation (SMPC) made a pact to facilitate the development of a mine-mouth power plant in the province of Antique to ensure the acceleration of total electrification of the country.
Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi, with SMPC’s President and Chief Operating Officer Victor Consunji and Chairman and CEO Isidro Consunji signed, last August 14 a memorandum of understanding covering the project.
The signing was witnessed by National Power Corp. (Napocor) President Pio Benavidez, National Transmission Corp. President Melvin Matibag, Oriental Mindoro Electric Cooperative General Manager Patrocinio Panagsagan, Jr. and Occidental Mindoro Electric Cooperative General Manager Alfred Dantis.
“Offering a rightful move for our energy needs, we assisted the development of a mine-mouth coal-fired power plant or a power plant using indigenous coal as fuel to address the growth in the baseload demand and required reserves of Semirara Island along with the other neighboring islands and provinces,” Cusi said during the MOU signing.
Cusi said the SMPC will construct an initial aggregate 50 megawatt mine-mouth plant and National Transmission Corp. (Transco) will enable the construction of the transmission lines.
“It will provide reliable, secured and much more affordable power to Occidental and Oriental Mindoro, Marinduque and Romblon, and even Palawan, which already signified interest,” Cusi said.
The DOE will endorse the power project as an Energy Project of National Significance under Executive Order No. 30 issued by President Rodrigo Duterte last June.
Moreover, the project will form part of the annually updated Philippine Energy Plan and Power Development Plan.
“What we are doing is creating solutions for our perennial energy problems in the island provinces,” Cusi expressed.
“How can our children in the islands study if they don’t have reliable electricity or even little benefits such as being able to watch educational TV show or have a computer for academic purposes?”, he added.
Cusi said consistent with the DOE’s E-Power Mo! campaign, the project seeks to empower Filipinos in the islands by giving them secured electricity.
In 1977, the DOE issued the Coal Operating Contract 5 to SMPC for a coal mining project in Semirara Island in the Municipality of Caluya, Antique.