Group opens way for second power plant

SUAL, Pangasinan – Majority of residents here have favored the planned construction of a second power plant to prevent another power crisis and to address spiraling electricity costs.

            Sual Pro-progress, a development-oriented group of residents, cited the various public hearings conducted in the past years which showed that most of the local folk have welcomed the project as it provides jobs and additional income for the municipality.

            They also underscored the need to put up more power plants to help address the high cost of electricity in the country, which is the second highest in the Asia-Pacific region.

            According to recent survey conducted by Pulse Asia, a majority of Filipinos are dissatistied with the current prices of electricity and frequent power disruptions in many parts of the country, including Pangasinan.

The group said that aside from hundreds of jobs to be generated by the project, 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 the  barangay Baquioen where the plant would be located..

During the public consultations, majority of Sual residents welcomed the second power plant project, including womenfolk, senior citizens, farmers and fisherfolk, employees, and students who stand to benefit through the scholarship program of the project proponent .

The project proponent, Korean Electric Power Corporation, is spending about two billion US dollars for the power plant project which has a generating capacity of 1,000 megawatts.

The projectis expected to 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, they 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.

Worth about two billion US dollars, the proposed power plant would utilize the latest in coal technology to do away with pollution, called the ultra-super critical technology which today is the option of choice for most coal-fired power stations.

Energy experts describe this latest coal technology as the most-advanced of its kind in addressing green gas emissions and global warming.

This technology is now commonly used in the USA, Japan, South Korea, Germany and other countries.