March 20, 2013 – A Brown subsidiary to put up power facility in Mindanao
Listed A Brown Co. Inc., through a wholly-owned subsidiary Peakpower Energy Inc., will put up a 20.9 megawatt power facility in Mindanao to serve the power needs of South Cotabato II Electric Cooperative Inc. (Socoteco II).
In a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange, A Brown said it entered into a power supply and transfer agreement with Socoteco II last March 20 where Peakpower will build-operate and maintain-transfer the 20.9 MW bunker-fired power plant in the cooperative’s franchise area.
“This decision to build power generation facilities is our way of contributing a solution to the power problem in Mindanao,” said Peakpower president Roel Castro in a statement.
A Brown, however, did not disclose the rates it offered to Socoteco II or the cost of the diesel plant’s construction. Its officials could not be reached for comment as of posting time.
Last month, A Brown received approval from the Securities and Exchange Commission for the incorporation of Peakpower Energy for 40 million common shares , representing 100 percent of its outstanding capital stock.
Socoteco II welcomed A Brown’s offer “as a means of ensuring their peaking capacity requirements given the demand in their franchise area.”
“We found the contract advantageous to the electric cooperative, given the reduction in our supply contracts with National Power Corp. and a huge peaking requirement,” said Elenito Senit, Socoteco II board president.
Mindanao continues to be short of more than 250 megawatts as of Wednesday. Mindanao’s system capacity is only at 910 MW as against a system peak demand of 1,168 MW.
A Brown said that given the limited output of hydropower plants and the reduced contract with Napocor, Socoteco II has been compelled to continue to implement a four-hour rotational brownout, starting at 9 am to 9 pm daily.
It said that due to the critical power situation in the area, the operations of businesses and industries are greatly affected.
“ABCI will assist in enabling power customers maintain their desired level of economic activities by putting up the needed power capacities especially during peak hours,” A Brown said.
Socoteco II supplies electricity to SoCSarGen (South Cotabato, Sarangani & General Santos), which has continuously moved up the economy ladder due its rich agro-industrial base and natural tourist attractions.
A Brown, meanwhile, is a publicly-listed corporation since 1994 with major interest in real estate, infrastructure development, agribusiness and investments in listed companies. Through its subsidiary Palm Thermal Consolidated Holdings, it is the developer of the 135-MW coal-fired power plant project in Iloilo province.
