BRGY. MAILUM, Bago City - The national government is expected to earn about P2 billion a year from its geothermal power plant here, an official of the state-owned Philippine National Oil Company-Energy Development Corp. said.

The 40-megawatt geothermal power plant in Sitio Pataan, Brgy. Mailum, Bago City, is now 31 percent completed. It has a life span of 10 years, PNOC-EDC said.

Rudy Pol, Operations Manager of the Northern Negros Geothermal Project, also said the ROI (Return of Investment), which is P7 billion to P8 billion used in the construction of the geothermal power plant, will be recovered within a three-year period.

On the other hand, the Southern Negros Geothermal Plant in Palimpinon, Oriental Negros, which supplies electricity to Negros Occidental, Cebu and Panay, is producing 195.2 megawatts.

One megawatt , equivalent to one millions watts, is capable of lighting up 800,000 households.

NNGP resident manager Gino de la Cruz said the 40 megawatts power derived from the geothermal plant, will address the power deficit suffered by electric consumers in Negros Occidental.

Negros island is suffering from a power deficit of 57 megawatts, although a geothermal power plant in the Oriental side produces 195.2 megawatts, PNOC records show.

While the geothermal power to be produced from NNGP may not meet the total power requirements of Negros Occidental, it can be a big help to electric consumers in the province, de la Cruz said.

The NNGP power plant is expected by PNOC-EDC to be commissioned in January next year.

The power demand of Negros island as projected by the Visayas Grid, is to rise from 246 megawatts to 347 megawatts in 2013.

During the peak period, Negros Occidental gets its electric power from Cebu, which is also being supplied by a geothermal power plant in Leyte, de la Cruz said.

While we may have some problems with some landowners over "right of way", we are still on target in the commissioning of the NNGP power plant, he added.

The NNGP power plant is located outside the Mt. Kanlaon National Park, although some of its drilling wells are within the edge of the park, de la Cruz said.

He added that the government is also expected to have P2.3 billion in savings from oil imports as soon as the NNGP power plant in Bago City, Negros Occidental, operates next year.

Other benefits derived from the construction of geothermal power plant include the giving of electrification assistance to 50 unenergized barangays in Negros Occidental under PNOC-EDC's expanded rural electrification program and the host communities will also receive royalty payments, which could enable them to lower or subsidize electricity of their constituents, its spokesman Joey Higgins said.

Higgins added the PNOC-EDC will also continue to give back the bounties derived from the company's use of geothermal energy through its Balik-Biyaya program by providing host communities health, education, livelihood and environment management projects.*GPB

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