KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia — The National Power Corp. (NPC) will need to source an additional funding of P11.5 billion for next year to be able to procure diesel fuel and avoid rationing of power supply in off-grid areas.
“For 2025, we need P11.5 billion to be approved. Otherwise, each billion of deficit would result in about 2.1 hours of no power,” Fernando Martin Roxas, NPC president and chief executive officer, told reporters on the sidelines of the Enlit Asia 2024 energy conference here on Wednesday.
NPC said it would raise the amount through a loan or by increasing
the power rates of Small Power Utilities Group (SPUG) power plants. The latter would have to be approved by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC).
Roxas said failure to raise the amount would mean curtailment of supply to off grid areas which he added is “bad on an election year.”
“I sent a memo to the DOE (Department of Energy) telling them that if we don’t get an approval, we will have no more money to pay by March 2025 and we will start cutting operations,” Roxas said.
Just last June, NPC secured a loan of P15 billion to procure fuel.
NPC supervises 272 SPUG power plants nationwide in 222 areas in 192 municipalities across 35 provinces.
SPUG power plants are located in islands and communities that are not connected to the main transmission grid. These are mostly powered by diesel-fired generators.
NPC also manages the transmission systems of island provinces such as Palawan, Catanduanes, Masbate, Marinduque and Mindoro.
