NEGROS Occidental Third District Board Member Manuel Frederick Ko said on Wednesday, December 12, that three electric cooperatives in the province rely on coal-fired power plants as 70 percent of their power supply is sourced from conventional power which is coal.
Ko made the statement after the committee hearing on Wednesday at the request of Governor Alfredo Marañon Jr. to declare Negros as coal-free power.
Technical personnel from Central Negros Electric Cooperative, Northern Negros Electric Cooperative, and Negros Occidental Electric Cooperative served as resource persons during the committee hearing.
Ko said that such committee hearing was the first of a series of consultation hearings that will be conducted by the Provincial Board relative to the request of the governor.
He said that based on the statements of the resource persons, it was also found out that the coal plants which are the sources of their power are located in Iloilo and Cebu.
“We will now invite resource speakers from the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines, the Department of Energy, the environmentalist groups, the church representatives and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and other stakeholders,” the board member said.
The church through the three dioceses in Negros have already signified their strong opposition to the entry of a coal plant in Negros.
Ko said that what matters to the electric cooperatives as distribution utilities is the price and the availability of power sources.
Negros Occidental’s present power demand is 300 megawatts and that 30 percent of the power supply of the electric cooperatives are sourced from mixed sources and the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market, Ko added. (TDE)