Bantayan Island Electric Cooperative Inc. on Monday said it will energize its entire franchise area by 2022 in support of the government’s electrification agenda.
“While Bantayan Island was dubbed as the next major tourist destination in the country, our main objective is total electrification of every households in our franchise area by the year 2022 consistent with the national government’s strategy,” BANELCO general manager Lee Rivera said.
BANELCO said it was preparing its distribution system to meet the surge in demand after Bantayan Island was opened for domestic tourism.
“As a tourist destination, reliable power supply is a vital factor to address the consequent growth in power demand and to sustain the economic development of Bantayan Island,” Rivera said.
“BANELCO have upgraded its distribution system especially the backbone lines in anticipation to the increase in load demand,” he said.
“Adequate and reliable power supply is also part of Banelco’s preparation,” Rivera said.
BANELCO tapped power supplier Isla Norte Energy Corp., the joint venture of Vivant Energy Corp. and Gigawatt Power Inc., to provide additional source amid the shortage experienced in the past months.
The supply deficit resulted in rotational brownouts “to the dismay of our member consumer owners and with the failure of our existing power supplier to provide additional power source.”
BANELCO said it tapped INEC to address the power supply shortage and the company installed an additional 3MW rented generations sets starting Augu. 11.
“The additional 3-MW gensets somehow stabilized the power supply situation in the island and significantly improved the power supply reliability in the Island which will benefit over 33,000 connected consumers,” Rivera said.
BANELCO SAID IT experienced an uncharacteristic growth in demand every year in the past six years, consistently surpassing forecasts.
“This is primarily due to the positive tourism activity in the island that is increasing every year before the pandemic. Our long-term plan with regards to power supply was to have a stable and reliable power,” he said.
BANELCO continues to implement corporate social responsibility projects including the Share a Light program for the benefit of its member-consumers, Rivera said.
Banelco provides not less than 100 free electric connections to indigent households.
“Even during this time of pandemic, which greatly affected our operations financially, we will still implement the said CSR this year. The impact of this CSR is priceless,” Rivera said.
