City of Mati, Davao Oriental-To enhance the quality of Davao Oriental Electric Cooperative (DORECO) services and augment the shortage of power in this town, a 5-megawatt diesel power plant will be put up on April 2017.
Through competitive bidding, the power plant will be built by Total Power, Inc. on a 1-hectare property along National Highway in Crossing Libudon, Brgy. Dawan and will operate after a year from date of construction.
The embedded power plant will “serve as back-up in times of emergency power outages” since Mati City is always affected by unscheduled power interruption as “it is located at the load end of the grid”, a board resolution stated.
Engr. Gregory A. Dukil, DORECO Chief Executive Officer disclosed that the contractors will utilize 3 brand new engines made in Belgium of which each produces 1.8 megawatts. DORECO will pay Total Power Inc. at thirteen cents per kilowatt hour within 15 years and will acquire the power plant afterwards in accordance with the build-operate-transfer scheme.
Engr. Dukil stressed that diesel power plant is cheaper and is the “most reliable and practical” source of energy compared to renewable energy which “takes huge amount of development”. He added that the measure will lessen the financial burden of the consumers because they won’t be paying for the system loss, and will further “boost the voltage level because low voltage destroys several kinds of equipment”.
Diesel power plant will especially supply the power needs in Mati as a highly-populated and slowly becoming industrialized City, Engr. Dukil said. “We should be prepared considering that we are within the vicinity of the president’s place, here in Davao Region. We are anticipating that there will be several projects to be undertaken in Davao Oriental so we need sufficient supply of power. We need the power to industrialize this country, for this nation to move forward. “
Meanwhile, he assured that the scheduled construction of modern power plant poses no harm to human health condition as it is equipped with protective devices that filters carbon dioxide from the smoke it emits. In addition, DORECO has initiated tree planting around the area on August of last year. By Riza Golez
