Thousands of Sual residents to benefit from second power plant

SUAL, Pangasinan - More than a thousand workers are needed for the planned construction of the second power plant in this town.

This was learned from the representatives of Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) which is currently holding talks with municipal officials here headed by Mayor Roberto Arcinue for the construction of the second power plant.

Coal Power Facility with Clean Coal Plant (Photo Credit:
SEC.gov't)

It was learned that more than three hundred regular employees would be needed for its operation.

Mayor Arcinue said most of the workers and employees needed should come from this burgeoning town as mandated by an ordinance which requires investors to recruit residents here for their manpower requirements, if ever available locally.

Aside from the hundreds of jobs, he also said that some P800 million in real property taxes could be collected annually from the proposed power plant, which shall be shared by the province, the municipality of Sual and Barangay Baquioen where the plant would be located..

Mayor Arcinue happily reported that an overwhelming majority of the people in this Western Pangasinan town welcomed the second power plant project, including womenfolk, senior citizens, farmers and fisher folk, employees, and students who stand to benefit through the scholarship program of the project proponent .

He said the project proponent is spending about two billion US dollars for the power plant project which has a generating capacity of 1,000 megawatts.

The mayor said this will boost and stabilize the power supply for the Luzon grid to do away with frequent power interruptions.

The construction of the second coal-fired power plant, he added, dovetails with the pronouncement of President Duterte who stressed the need to put up more coal-fired power plants to avert another power crisis owing to ballooning population and influx of investors.

Duterte said he sees nothing wrong with the government’s plan to put up new coal-fired power plants to boost power supply in the country.

“You open the Philippines for all power players, I guarantee you the electricity will become cheaper,” Duterte repeatedly said as he inaugurated several coal-fired power plants in Visayas and Mindanao, the latest of which was the 405-megawatt coal-fired power plant in Misamis Oriental.

 “At this time, whoever is the president of the Philippines would always contend with coal. There’s so much coal still that can be utilized by civilization for the next 50 to 70 years..... You open the Philippines for all power players, I guarantee you the electricity will become cheaper,” he said.

The President stressed that there should be no problem with coal when it comes to pollution owing to the advent of new technologies.