More on Kepco-Salcon

In response to questions on why CENECO is not buying power from the Northern Negros Geothermal Plant of PNOC-EDC, CENECO president Montelibano has been claiming that he will also buy from NNGP as he wants to have diverse power sources for Ceneco.

But can Ceneco really buy power from NNGP if it does not get out of its power contract with Kepco-Salcon?

The annual contract quantity under Kepco-Salcon is 470,400,000 kWh. As the planned coal plant will have an 80 percent availability factor, or it will be out for 80 days a year due to preventive maintenance schedule, the 470,400,000 kWh energy is equivalent to 67 MW.

Of the annual contract quantity, 75 percent (50 MW) is to be provided by the Kepco-Salcon coal plant, while 25 percent (17 MW) will be sourced from the NPC generating plants.  Ceneco has reported in its Distribution Development Plan that its peak demand will reach 125.6 MW by 2011. If the usual baseload of electric cooperatives is 60% of peak demand, the baseload of Ceneco by 2011 will be about 75 MW. Since CENECO has already contracted 67 MW from Kepco-Salcon, there is very little room for it to contract power from other baseload power plants such as NNGP. Ceneco will have to contract its additional power requirements from midrange and peaking plants of NPC.

Power plants are generally classified based on their utilization factors and, more importantly, on cost of fuel.  Peaking plants have the lowest utilization factor of about 20 percent and below, and the most expensive fuel cost--gas turbines and diesel plants belong to this category.  Midrange plants have utilization factor from 21 percent to 50 percent, e.g., natural gas and bunker-fired diesel plants. Baseload plants have utilization factors above 50 percent and have the cheapest fuel cost, e.g., geothermal, hydro, coal plants.

Therefore, unless Mr. Montelibano backs out of the Kepco-Salcon contract, can CENECO really buy power from NNGP which is designed for baseload operation?

Mr. Montelibano can still pursue buying power from NNGP if CENECO becomes an aggregator , that is, it will buy electricity in excess of its own needs and then sell the excess to other groups. But an aggregator is just a middle man in the sale of electricity.  Involving an aggregator will just increase the cost of power as commission or fees will be paid to the aggregator.

Can Mr. Montelibano make transparent his plans for securing power for CENECO?

Sincerely yours,

ROMANA P. DE LOS REYES
CENECO consumer
Spokesperson, Visayas for Renewable Energy

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