Napocor buying P1.3-billion gensets for off-grid areas

MANILA, Philippines — State-run National Power Corp. (Napocor) is acquiring generator sets (gensets) worth as much as P1.3 billion to improve power supply in off-grid islands.

In separate bid bulletins, Napocor said it is soliciting bids for the supply of 124 modular gensets with a combined cost of P1.26 billion.

Of the total, 47 gensets worth P554.69 million are for Luzon, 55 gensets costing P433.07 million are for the Visayas and 22 gensets amounting to P272.37 million are for Mindanao.

These gensets will be installed in Napocor’s  Small Power Utilities Group (SPUG) areas across the country.

Under the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001, Napocor is mandated to provide power generation and associated power delivery systems in missionary areas or those islands and communities not connected to the main transmission grid.

Napocor operates 275 SPUG plants in 189 municipalities across 34 provinces in the country.

In the first half of 2017, Napocor installed nearly 64 new generating sets with a total capacity of 28.69 megawatts (MW) to 38 SPUG power plants that service 176,000 households.

These were deployed and commissioned in various SPUG plants in 17 provinces such as Apayao, Batanes, Aurora, Quezon, Batangas, Romblon, Marinduque, Palawan, Albay, Masbate, Antique, Cebu, Bohol, Western Samar, Tawi-Tawi, Sulu and Sultan Kudarat.

Napocor president and chief executive officer Pio Benavidez earlier said the deployment of gensets is part of the corporation’s continuous upgrading of services in the islands to ensure uninterrupted local business operations and implementation of the government’s development programs.

Benavidez also said the additional capacities would also meet the increase in power demand in some areas due to improving local economies and rural tourism.