MANILA, Philippines — An electric cooperative is calling on the national government to support the National Power Corp. (Napocor)’s bid for an additional budget to mitigate the impact of soaring fuel prices.
The Marinduque Electric Cooperative Inc. (Marelco) is urging the national government to hear the plea of Napocor to supplement its budget to address the spike in fuel prices.
“We hope the national government supports NPC’s call for an additional budget due to the fuel price spike,” Marelco general manager Gaudencio Sol Jr. said.
Sol said Marelco received an advisory from Napocor that beginning Oct. 19, there would be a possible “load shedding” activities to reduce fuel consumption and stretch available fuel inventory of the Torrijos diesel plant and Power Barge 120.
“Napocor informed us that no fuel deliveries would be made to our two plants and the board of directors and management try to schedule a meeting with Napocor to management on how to resolve this matter,” Sol said.
In its letter to Marelco, Napocor said it has been informed by Petron that it would temporarily limit the fuel and lubes deliveries for the diesel power plant and power barge due to failure of Napocor to pay the oil company on the committed date.
“We hereby advise you in advance that we may implement load shedding to lessen fuel consumption and stretch the available fuel inventory of the two power plants while Napocor is resolving the matter,” Napocor told Marelco.
Marelco distributes power to the municipalities of Boac, Buenavista, Gasan, Mogpog, Sta. Cruz and Torrijos.
Sol said said the Torrijos diesel plant ran out of fuel stock last Friday, thus leaving a shortage of approximately 500 kilowatts to one megawatt.
Fortunately, the Marelco executive said no power curtailment has been implemented by Napocor to date.
Napocor has earlier warned of potential widespread power outages occurring in missionary areas covered by small power utilities groups (SPUG) in less than a year due to the shutdown of diesel plants and its inability to pay fuel suppliers.
Napocor said it submitted an original budget proposal of P44.749 billion for 2023, but was cut by 30 percent by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to P32.212 billion.
It said the DBM recommended level would not be enough to cover its full-year operation requirements intended for SPUG plants and barges, as well as its new power providers and qualified third party (NPP-QTP) subsidy requirements.
Among the impact of the budget reduction cited by Napocor is the possible shutdown of 278 existing plants by the end of July 2023, of which 200 are in Luzon, 54 in Visayas and 27 in Mindanao.
Napocor said there would also be a deferment of scheduled energization of 44 new unserved areas affecting 15 areas in Luzon, 14 in Visayas, and another 15 in the Mindanao area.
The delay of payment versus NPPs and QTPs operating in the SPUG areas may also result in power outages outages affecting 834,285 households nationwide, it said.
According to Napocor, its approved fuel budget of P6.385 billion for SPUG missionary areas was based on a price assumption of P37.99 per liter for diesel.
However, it said diesel prices have increased to as high as P79.66 per liter starting in June due to the Russia-Ukraine war.