Roberto Montelibano, board president of the Central Negros Electric Cooperative, yesterday said he is meeting with Bacolod Bishop Vicente Navarra on October 28 to further discuss the controversial power sales contract of CENECO with KEPCO-Salcon Power Corp.

Montelibano said that before meeting with Navarra, he has sent him a letter which he also furnished to Gov. Joseph Marañon and Vice Gov. Isidro Zayco. CENECO's power supply contract with KEPCO-Salcon Power Corp. stipulates that KSPC will provide the cooperative 40 megawatts starting 2011, after CENECO's contract with the National Power Corp. expires in 2010.

In his letter to the bishop, he stressed that CENECO's mandate is to ensure stable power supply at reasonable rate.

Montelibano reiterated that CENECO is facing threats of power shortage after 2010 because there will be scarcity of power supply as the NPC will no longer build new plants and it is also being prohibited by the Electric Power Industry Reform Act to enter into contracts with Independent Power Producers.

He said that no new plants of commercial size are being built in the Visayas except for the KEPCO-Salcon's 200-megawatt coal-fired power plant in Cebu.

Montelibano also responded to the environmental concerns, plant cost, passed-on cost to consumers and sourcing of power from Negros enumerated by Navarra's letter to CENECO last month.

He also told Navarra in the letter that he will immediately discuss with PNOC-EDC the sourcing of power supply from the geothermal plant in Bago City "as soon as they have enough power to sell."

My letter contains my reply to the bishop's questions. We will take up further clarifications during the meeting, he said.*NLG

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