Baguio readies TOR for Asin

THE Terms of Reference (TOR) for the Asin Mini-Hydroelectric power plants is now being drafted by a technical committee as the City Government hastens to resume operations of the Asin Mini-Hydroelectric power plants.

City Administrator Carlos Canilao said the application for the Certificate of Compliance with the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) is being done by the city and is expected to be completed in a month’s time.

Canilao said the city is bound to get a provisional permit to operate the Asin Mini-Hydroelectric plants once requirements are completed. But Canilao is confident the city will not have a difficult time acquiring the permit since a certificate was already granted during Hedcor’s operations of the plant.

“What the City Government will do is to apply for a renewal of the permit since the plant previously had its Certificate of Compliance through Hedcor as it expired in 2008,” he said.

The city administrator said at least five private partners have expressed interests in operating and rehabilitating the plant.

He said the drafting of the TOR will not take a long time as it will still be submitted to the City Council for review.

The City Government, he added, is bent on accomplishing the ERC requirements and the search for private partners as it faces some P2.5 million in losses monthly since the plant stopped producing power last October.

Since the plant stopped operations, the city already pegged the losses at P10 million as of February after the Benguet Electric Cooperative pulled the plug in buying power in the Asin plants citing the lack of an Energy Power Purchase Agreement and the Certificate of Compliance as power producer of the City Government.

Asin plants Engr. Ramsam Abance stressed they are maintaining and securing the plants while operations are on hold. Further delay of the privatization of the Asin plants will affect the machines, Abance said, adding these machines must be upgraded.

The City Government’s appeal is for private partners to immediately resume operations and upgrade the facilities of the Asin hydroelectric power plants. (JM Agreda)