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GOVERNMENT-run National Transmission Corp. (Transco)
said Tuesday it has increased its power delivery by 8.6
percent to 26,700 megawatt-months of power to the
country’s major electricity grids in the first quarter
of the year from 24,854.2 megawatt-months during the
same period a year ago.
Power
delivery service measured in megawatt-months refers to
the sum of Transco’s monthly billing demands for 2007.
Transco’s corporate planning group reported that power
delivered to the Luzon grid reached 20,162.9
megawatt-months, a 9.9-percent increase from the
previous year’s level of 18,352.6 megawatt-months.
Delivery
to the Visayas and
Mindanao grids also went up, by 4.6 percent and 5.6 percent, respectively, over
the year-ago levels.
Of the
total power wheeled by Transco nationwide in the first
quarter of the year, about 77 percent came from the
National Power Corp. (Napocor) and its independent power
producers (IPPs). The rest came from the three IPPs
supplying Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) and other
generating units in Luzon and Visayas.
In the
Luzon grid, Meralco’s demand for power delivery service
increased by 15 percent due to notable increases in the
power demand of electricity users in its franchise area,
which includes Metro Manila, the entire provinces of
Rizal, Bulacan and Cavite, and parts of Laguna, Quezon,
Batangas and Pampanga.
Meralco
is Transco’s largest customer and accounts for 73
percent of Transco’s total delivery in Luzon. Sixty
percent of Meralco’s power supply came from Napocor and
its IPPs, while the remaining 40 percent was supplied by
the three Meralco IPPs.
Transco’s total power delivery to other distribution
utilities, however, registered a less- than-one-percent
decrease compared with the year-ago level.
Of these
distribution utilities, those in the northern part of
Luzon posted positive growths while those in the
southern areas recorded reduced power consumption.
Transco
attributed the decrease to the series of typhoons that
hit the country in the latter part of 2006 and damaged
some of the major transmission lines in the area.
In the
case of nonutility customers, power delivery service
requirements went up slightly by 2.5 percent. The
minimal growth was due to lower-than-expected demands
from Transco’s major customers in the steel and chemical
industries.
Economic
zone customers, on the other hand, posted a combined
demand of 493.5 megawatt-months, or a 12.7-percent
decrease in their power requirements quarter-on-quarter.
Despite
the increase in power requirements of economic zones in
Baguio and Cavite , the almost 120 megawatt-months of
power Transco wheeled to TIPCO Estates Corp. (TECO) was
not carried out due to TECO’s decision to terminate its
power supply contract with Napocor and get its power
requirements from an IPP starting June 2006.
In the
Visayas grid, Transco delivered 2,945.1 megawatt-months
of power, a 4.6-percent increase over the year-ago
level.
The
power delivery uptick is attributed to the increase in
demand of distribution utilities, particularly the
Visayan Electric Co. and Central Negros Electric
Cooperative.
In the
Mindanao grid, power delivery also rose 5.6 percent to
3,891.9 megawatt-months due to the increase in the
demand of distribution utilities and industrial
customers.
Electricity wheeled to distribution utilities grew by
5.3 percent or 158.1 megawatt-months. Power delivered to
industrial customers increased by 6.8 percent. |
