SEN. Raffy Tulfo yesterday assured residents of Occidental Mindoro the National Electrification Administration (NIA) is set to come up with “concrete solutions” to end to their months-long, 20-hour daily power outage predicament.
In a statement, Tulfo said he met with NEA Administrator Antonio Almeda on Sunday morning to discuss the current energy crisis in Occidental Mindoro.
Tulfo is the chairperson of the Senate Committee on Energy.
The senator initially said the NEA will approve a Board resolution to extend a P50 million loan to the Occidental Mindoro Electric Cooperative Inc. (OMECO) to buy bunker fuel “as a temporary solution to the power outage.”
“Sa ibinigay na briefing ni admin Almeda sa akin, hiniling niya na bigyan siya ng hanggang tatlong linggo mula ngayon para makapagbigay sila ng konkretong solusyon sa problemang ito (In his briefing, admin Almeda asked for a three-week period from today so they can offer concrete solutions to the problem),” Tulfo said.
He said NEA has already requested a Certificate of Exemption from the Department of Energy to allow OMECO to enter into an Emergency Power Supply Agreement (EPSA).
Once set in motion, OMECO will be able to secure modular generators sets from Singapore that can generate up to 17 megawatts (MW).
He said Almeda also told him that NEA asked for the transfer of four modular gensets with 2MW each from Mindanao which can produce up to 8MW. The gensets were the same ones used when a power crisis hit Mindanao in 2013 to 2014.
Also, Tulfo said Almeda has asked the DMCI Power Corporation to provide around 5MW of electricity from Oriental Mindoro to Occidental Mindoro which can immediately provide an extra four hours of electricity per day in the troubled province.
He said he was also informed that the NEA and DOE have requested the Department of Finance to remove the restrictions on the next loan to be secured by the National Power Corporation (NPC) so it can be used in missionary electrification areas.
In the current policy, the NPC cannot use its loan in areas already covered by private power providers, such as OMECO, which are no longer included in the Small Power Utility Group (SPUG) areas of the corporation.
SPUG refers to areas where NPC remains the power provider.
Tulfo said that NEA has asked the NPC to be the one to operate the old and unused NPC plant that it will renovate so it can generate 10MW once it becomes operational.
Likewise, Tulfo said he has already called Malacañang and asked for an audience with President Marcos Jr. to discuss how the Senate can help with the electricity problems in Occidental Mindoro.
