The Central Negros Electric Cooperative yesterday entered into a contract with the Korea Electric Power Corp.-Salcon Power Corp. for the purchase of its 10-year power supply starting 2011.

Board president Roberto Montelibano, who signed the more than 40-page sale contract in behalf of CENECO, said the electric cooperative will pay P4.30 per kilowatt hour, the projected power rate by 2011.

At the signing rites at L'Fisher Hotel in Bacolod City, KEPCO was represented by its president Lee Kang Won and division manager Park Young. Director Perlito Fuentespina witnessed in behalf of CENECO. The Korean government-run KEPCO has been developing power projects in the Philippines since 1993.

Montelibano told the DAILY STAR the contract is still subject to approval by the Energy Regulatory Commission which will also conduct a public hearing in Bacolod at a later date.

"We signed a contract to protect the CENECO areas of four cities and one municipality. If we don't have a contract with them, they will not supply us with power later," he said, citing the statement of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo last Friday that Visayas is expected to have an electric power gap of 100MW in 2009.

Montelibano said that KEPCO-Salcon, for its part, has to get the commitment of electric cooperatives in Negros Occidental to purchase its power supply so it can start constructing its 118-MW coal-fired power plant in Naga, Cebu.

At present, CENECO sources power supply from the National Power Corporation.

On May 24, the Negros Occidental Electric Cooperative Inc., which supplies electricity in southern Negros, also signed a sale contract with KEPCO-Salcon Power Corp. for its power supply starting 2010.

ERC officials are scheduled to conduct a public hearing in southern Negros by the end of the month, Montelibano said.

NOCECO's contract stipulates that it will purchase 10MW, or about 67 percent of its base load, from KEPCO-Salcon three years from now.

Montelibano said the V-M-C Rural Electric Service Cooperative, which provides electricity in northern Negros, is also expected to sign a sale contract with KEPCO-Salcon shortly.*NLG

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