The Central Negros Electric Cooperative saved P44 million in power costs for the months of May to middle of July this year by utilizing its contracted reserve power from the Central Negros Power Reliability Inc. instead of relying on the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market, a press release from CENPRI said.
It added that the Visayan region had been suffering from power shortages due to low power supply in Luzon and the continued repairs going on in the 90-megawatt Amlan submarine cable that was damaged recently.
“Electric distributors in Negros Island, Panay, and Cebu normally would be forced to suffer rolling brownouts due to the manual load shedding, or to buy power from WESM where, during these shortages, hourly prices ranged from P17 to P32.97 per kilowatt-hour especially during the afternoon until 10 p.m.,” the CENRPRI said.
It was Ceneco’s 18.9MW reserve power contract with CENPRI that saved Bacolod from rolling brownouts. “Additionally, it saved Ceneco P1 to P21 per kWh from the WESM prices since CENPRI is guaranteeing the coop a price of approximately P11 per kWh,” the press release added.
The savings of Ceneco, the exclusive distributor of electricity in Bacolod, Silay, Talisay, Bago, Murcia, and Salvador Benedicto, averaged P16 million a month by availing of the reserve power of CENPRI. “In addition, the electric coop also would have lost P50 million a month in lost revenues due to the forced brownouts without the reserve power.”
Energy industry officials estimated that it would take until November for the downed large coal plants in Luzon and the 90MW Amlan submarine to be back in service and improve the supply. Those will also reduce the WESM prices in both Luzon and the Visayas, it added.
The 25.9MW net reserve power plant of CENPRI in Brgy. Calumangan, Bago City, is connected to the transmission and distribution system of Ceneco. A system innovation of Ceneco, it is designed to provide the power coop with insurance for assured supply of peaking power from 5 to 10 p.m. and protection from high WESM costs to the Ceneco area when the transmission lines bringing power from Cebu and Panay island suffer operational problems and bad weather.*
