Mine-Mouth Power Plant to Rise In Antique

Wazzup Pilipinas!

To ensure the acceleration of total electrification of the country, the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Semirara Mining and Power Corporation (SMPC) made a pact to facilitate the development of a mine-mouth power plant in the province of Antique.

DOE Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi together with SMPC’s President and Chief Operating Officer Victor A. Consunji and Chairman and CEO Isidro A. Consunji signed on Monday, August 14, the Memorandum of Understanding for the said project.

The signing was witnessed by National Power Corporation President Pio J. Benavidez, National Transmission Corporation President Atty. Melvin Matibag, Oriental Mindoro Electric Cooperative General Manager Patrocinio M. Panagsagan, Jr. and Occidental Mindoro Electric Cooperative General Manager Alfred A. Dantis.

“Offering a rightful ‘diskarte’ to our energy needs, we assisted the development of a mine-mouth coal-fired power plant or a power plant using indigenous coal as fuel to address the growth in the baseload demand and required reserves of Semirara Island along with the other neighboring islands and provinces,” Cusi said during the MOU signing event.

According to Cusi, SMPC will construct an initial aggregate 50 megawatt mine-mouth plant and TRANSCO will enable the construction of the transmission lines.

“It will provide reliable, secured and much more affordable power to Occidental and Oriental Mindoro, Marinduque and Romblon, and even Palawan, which already signified interest,” Cusi cited.

The DOE will endorse the power project as an Energy Project of National Significance under Executive Order No. 30 issued by President Rodrigo Duterte last June.

Moreover, the project will form part of the annually updated Philippine Energy Plan and Power Development Plan.

“What we are doing is creating solutions for our perennial energy problems in the island provinces," Cusi expressed.

“How can our children in the islands study if they don’t have reliable electricity or even little benefits such as being able to watch educational TV show or have a computer for academic purposes?"

Cusi added, “Consistent with our E-Power Mo! campaign, we want to empower our kababayan in the islands by giving them secured electricity."

In 1977, the DOE issued the Coal Operating Contract No. 5 to SMPC for a coal mining project in Semirara Island in the Municipality of Caluya, Antique.