New chief wants Napocor weaned from diesel
State-run National Power Corp. (Napocor), under fresh leadership, is “overhauling” its strategy to cut dependence on costlier diesel fuel.
Jericho Jonas Nograles, the newly installed president and chief executive officer of Napocor, said he was working closely with the Department of Energy in exploring new technologies.
“We’re trying to increase our renewable energy assets to decrease diesel dependence. And we are now currently overhauling the approach because the rollout is a bit slow,” he told reporters last week.
“Let’s hope that you will see the results within six months,” Nograles said.
The Napocor CEO said he has initiated talks with the Western Mindanao Command to reach the farthest-flung islands.
Nograles said Napocor plans to deploy “hundreds of solar home systems” to remote areas.
“So, we’re looking at islands. We’re looking at geographically isolated areas. And for those that are within the Napocor territories, within our 168 islands, we will fix their cost of electricity,” he said.
Hybridization program
The Napocor chief also said he would push for the state firm’s hybridization program. That is, the private sector will be tapped to build renewable energy facilities to either augment or replace existing diesel-fired power plants.
“But I can see that it has big obstacles. We’re fixing and studying what are the ways to remove those obstacles,” he said. Nograles, however, declined to specify the issues.
Napocor’s Small Power Utilities Group (SPUG) currently operates 281 power plants across 35 provinces.
SPUG provides electricity to areas not linked to the main transmission grid. They operate mostly diesel-fired generators.
Nograles also said the bulk of Napocor’s generation facilities are diesel power plants, which are “the most expensive that we have.”
He said that the average cost of electricity from diesel generators is about P30 per kilowatt hour (kWh). Of that cost, about P23 is subsidized by the government.
