The National Power Corp. (NPC) will pursue another round of borrowings worth P10 billion to avoid rationing of power supply in off-grid areas.
Fernando Martin Roxas, NPC president and chief executive officer, said at the sidelines of the Future Energy Show event in Pasay City last week, the amount is on top of the P5 billion that was approved earlier.
Roxas also said rotational power interruptions will no longer occur because of additional funding secured for the purchase of enough fuel supply for Small Power Utilities Group (SPUG) power plants.
“It will no longer happen because we’ve been able to borrow P5 billion and we will add an additional P10 billion… Not yet approved but we already asked for the Monetary Board approval and beginning to apply for the sovereign guarantee,” Roxas added.
Roxas also said the amount will be sourced from Land Bank of the Philippines.
He said NPC is hopeful the P10 billion will be released August or September.
SPUG power plants are located in islands and communities that are not connected to the main transmission grid and funded by revenues from power sales and from the universal charge being collected from all power consumers in the country.
NPC oversees a total of 281 power plants under the said category in 189 municipalities across 35 provinces which are mostly powered by diesel-fired generators.
