CEBU, Philippines - With the worsening energy problems in the province, the additional supply of 10 Megawatts from the new CEMEX Philippines - Visayan Electric Company substation is a welcome development that would help to alleviate the power interruptions and brownouts in the area.
CEMEX Philippines, one of the biggest producers of cement in the country, together with officials of VECO, Naga Mayor Valdemar Chiong and Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia yesterday had the ceremonial switching of the CEMEX-VECO Interconnection in APO Cement Plant, Tina-an Naga, Cebu.
CEMEX being initially known for its huge cement production which bought APO Cement in 2001, has its own power plant that produces energy for its operations however has decided to share 10 Megawatts of its total power to the whole province to help mitigate power interruptions that has been heavily experienced in the past year.
Just recently, the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines also announced a power shortage of 200 MW for the whole Visayas due to the shutdown of the power plant in Managdong, Leyte for a preventive maintenance.
Normandy Chan, Deputy Plant Director of Apo Cement said that their whole diesel fired power plant has the capacity of 66 MW wherein they use 40 MW for its internal operations.
This means excess power of more than 15 MW, which they are happy that they could contribute to the province that has been suffering from the lack of energy.
Chan said that they have started supplying 10 MW to VECO but has reached to 15 and may increase in the future.
Jaime Ruiz de Jaro, president of CEMEX Philippines and Asia said that even though they are largely on the production of top quality building materials, they are always looking for opportunities to help out.
“This is part of CEMEX’s continuing commitment to help sustain progress and development of Cebu,” de Jaro said.
According to recent data produced by the Cebu Energy Development Corporation, as of January 11 this year, Cebu has imported 254 MW from Leyte to give additional supply to the increasing demand of 549 MW wherein the dependable capacity is at 293 MW and should have a reserve of 128MW resulting to a deficit of 113MW for Cebu alone.
Atty. Darwin Mariano, Public Affairs Director of Cemex Philippines Asia explained that CEMEX would now be able to share the 10 MW of power to the Cebu-Negros-Panay Grid through the interconnection that would help VECO lessen their problem on cutting of power when plants bug down or needs to go down for maintenance.
Ethel Natera, the corporate communications officer of VECO said that the 10 MW would definitely be a big help so that they would turn of the power in certain places when needed.
Natera explained that the 10 MW would not be supplied to one particular area or feeder, as they call it, but would be distributed where it is needed. She said that the extra energy could already be a big addition to the supply for the feeders which energy demand depends on the population in the area and the establishments located in the vicinity.
According to Natera, CEMEX would be supplying energy in the morning which is the peak hours for energy demand but in the evening where there is less energy needed, CEMEX would be the one who would be buying from them since it is the peak of their operations.
So far, Natera said that CEMX has bought around 12 MW from them.
Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia showed the province’s appreciation for the extra energy provided by CEMEX saying that it is important to “address the urgent need to be addressed in order to sustain the phenomenal growth that Cebu has achieved.”
Garcia acknowledged the huge support of the CEMEX not only for the power supply but as well as in previous projects like road constructions and the building of classrooms in the provinces which was damaged by typhoons in which CEMEX donated bags of cement.
Erramon Aboitiz, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Aboitiz Equity Ventures and Chairman of the Board of VECO said that they see this as a “win-win-win” situation since this not only help them and CEMEX but the general public as well.
Aboitiz said that this is a milestone for them which is a first in the history of VECO where the substation is owned by VECO that directly synchronizes with the generating plant that employs unique switching equipment on its feeders for easy load transfer to and from VECO and APO power plants. It also functions as both a distribution substation and a transmission substation.
Naga Mayor Chiong and Atty. Paterno Acabodello, the representative of first district representative Eduardo Gullas also graced the event as well as other members of the private and public sector.
Source: The Freeman
