CITY OF SAN FERNANDO – Residents here and in five towns in Pampanga are expected to benefit from lower power rates starting January next year.
“Consumers will enjoy a 40-centavo reduction in rates charged on the average per kilowatt hour once the Aboitiz Power Renewables, Inc. starts supplying renewable energy to SFELAPCO [San Fernando Electric Light and Power Company],” said SFELAPCO president Michael Escaler during the contract signing held yesterday between the two companies at the Bale Capampangan in Dolores in this city.
He said that renewable energy is the most efficient source of electricity and “all SFELAPCO consumers in Floridablanca, Bacolor, Guagua, Lubao and Sto. Tomas will benefit from it.”
Escaler noted that renewable energy is cheaper because it is VAT [value added tax] exempted.
“Consumers will start to feel [low power rates] by October 2010 when sourcing is already 100 percent,” he said.
Luis Miguel Aboitiz, senior vice president on trading and marketing of Aboitiz Power, said “energy from renewable sources is also effectively VAT zero-rated so power from these sources can be sold to distribution utilities at prices that are competitive with coal plants.”
AboitizPower will supply renewable energy to SFELAPCO for three years starting December 26. Cleanergy, the AboitizPower brand of clean and renewable energy, will be sourced from its Tiwi-Makban geothermal facilities in Albay and Laguna respectively and from Hedcor-Irisan hydroelectric plant in Benguet.
AboitizPower will supply 25 megawatt of renewable energy for the first nine months to SFELAPCO when the latter’s contract with the National Power Corp. ends in Sept. 25, 2010.
In the succeeding 27 months until September 25, 2012, AboitizPower will be SFELAPCO’s exclusive bilateral energy supplier.
ALSO WITH COOPS
Aboitiz said that aside from private power firms, “we are also offering this (supply of renewable energy) to cooperative power companies but they haven’t availed of it yet.”
“We already talked to at least five of them, but it’s really a first come first served basis,” he said.
Since the contract of AboitizPower and SFELAPCO is in line with the Renewable Energy Act of 1998, he said they are actively developing and offering effective energy solutions for the country’s power demands.
“During the negotiations, SFELAPCO quickly realized that the availability of renewable energy was limited and that power from its source could be offered at a relatively predictable price – unlike coal, which is necessarily indexed to fluctuating fuel prices. This is why they decided to sign right away before all the remaining renewable capacity was committed to anyone else,” Aboitiz said.
BROWNOUTS DURING ELECTIONS
Jose Lazatin, SFELAPCO senior vice president and general manager, allayed fears of long brownouts in the 2010 automated elections here, and other areas they cover.
“Hindi tayo mauubusan ng kuryente but there are a lot of factors that contribute to brownouts like transmission. Pagdating dun wala na tayong control,” he said.
Lazatin also noted that AboitizPower could provide enough electricity even if one of its sources is down since “they have several power plants.”
SFELAPCO is a privately-owned power distribution utility which has a total energy requirement average of 35 million kilowatt hours per month for its residential, commercial and industrial customers.
“Consumers will enjoy a 40-centavo reduction in rates charged on the average per kilowatt hour once the Aboitiz Power Renewables, Inc. starts supplying renewable energy to SFELAPCO [San Fernando Electric Light and Power Company],” said SFELAPCO president Michael Escaler during the contract signing held yesterday between the two companies at the Bale Capampangan in Dolores in this city.
He said that renewable energy is the most efficient source of electricity and “all SFELAPCO consumers in Floridablanca, Bacolor, Guagua, Lubao and Sto. Tomas will benefit from it.”
Escaler noted that renewable energy is cheaper because it is VAT [value added tax] exempted.
“Consumers will start to feel [low power rates] by October 2010 when sourcing is already 100 percent,” he said.
Luis Miguel Aboitiz, senior vice president on trading and marketing of Aboitiz Power, said “energy from renewable sources is also effectively VAT zero-rated so power from these sources can be sold to distribution utilities at prices that are competitive with coal plants.”
AboitizPower will supply renewable energy to SFELAPCO for three years starting December 26. Cleanergy, the AboitizPower brand of clean and renewable energy, will be sourced from its Tiwi-Makban geothermal facilities in Albay and Laguna respectively and from Hedcor-Irisan hydroelectric plant in Benguet.
AboitizPower will supply 25 megawatt of renewable energy for the first nine months to SFELAPCO when the latter’s contract with the National Power Corp. ends in Sept. 25, 2010.
In the succeeding 27 months until September 25, 2012, AboitizPower will be SFELAPCO’s exclusive bilateral energy supplier.
ALSO WITH COOPS
Aboitiz said that aside from private power firms, “we are also offering this (supply of renewable energy) to cooperative power companies but they haven’t availed of it yet.”
“We already talked to at least five of them, but it’s really a first come first served basis,” he said.
Since the contract of AboitizPower and SFELAPCO is in line with the Renewable Energy Act of 1998, he said they are actively developing and offering effective energy solutions for the country’s power demands.
“During the negotiations, SFELAPCO quickly realized that the availability of renewable energy was limited and that power from its source could be offered at a relatively predictable price – unlike coal, which is necessarily indexed to fluctuating fuel prices. This is why they decided to sign right away before all the remaining renewable capacity was committed to anyone else,” Aboitiz said.
BROWNOUTS DURING ELECTIONS
Jose Lazatin, SFELAPCO senior vice president and general manager, allayed fears of long brownouts in the 2010 automated elections here, and other areas they cover.
“Hindi tayo mauubusan ng kuryente but there are a lot of factors that contribute to brownouts like transmission. Pagdating dun wala na tayong control,” he said.
Lazatin also noted that AboitizPower could provide enough electricity even if one of its sources is down since “they have several power plants.”
SFELAPCO is a privately-owned power distribution utility which has a total energy requirement average of 35 million kilowatt hours per month for its residential, commercial and industrial customers.
