DAVAO CITY, Philippines\u2014The power consumers\u2019 group People Opposed to unWarranted Electricity Rates (Power) called on the government to withdraw what the group said was a ridiculous plan to spend P6 billion in taxpayer money to rent generating sets to fill a projected shortfall in electric supply next year.<\/p>\n\n
Reacting to statements attributed to Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla, the group said the government should instead build power plants and run them as utilities instead of wasting funds to rent power generators.<\/p>\n\n
Double whammy<\/strong><\/p>\n\n \u201cIt is ridiculous for government to spend P6 billion in taxpayer money to rent bunker or diesel generators that will also make the price of electricity even more prohibitive than it already is,\u201d said Teddy Casi\u00f1o, one of the leaders of Power.<\/p>\n\n \u201cPetilla wants to hit us with a double whammy,\u201d he said. \u201cWe will be burdened as taxpayers and as consumers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n He said instead of granting the President special powers to contract additional supply of power from private firms, Power recommends that Congress allow the government, through the National Power Corp. (Napocor), to put up solar and other indigenous and renewable energy plants and run them as public utilities for the next 20-30 years.<\/p>\n\n Suggestions <\/strong><\/p>\n\n \u201cSolar power plants can be put up in as short as six months,\u201d Casino said.<\/p>\n\n \u201cNapocor can do this even as it prepares to build more stable base load plants like hydroelectric and biomass plants. The beauty here is that these will be state-owned utilities that can provide our people with cheap, clean power for the next two to three decades,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n But instead, he said, Petilla \u201cwants us to splurge P6 billion that will surely fatten the wallets of their favored suppliers at the expense of taxpayers and consumers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n The group also proposed the following measures to address next year\u2019s projected power supply shortfall\u2014upgrade existing government plants like the Malaya thermal plant, tap the capacities of distribution utilities and the private sector at a reasonable cost, implement an aggressive energy conservation and efficiency program, compel power generators to adjust their scheduled shutdowns and penalize those that fail to deliver their required capacities. Germelina Lacorte, Inquirer Mindanao<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The power consumers\u2019 group People Opposed to unWarranted Electricity Rates (Power) called on the government to withdraw what the group said was a ridiculous plan to spend P6 billion in taxpayer money to rent generating sets to fill a projected shortfall in electric supply next year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,39],"tags":[1022,1521,6578],"byline":[],"source":[206078],"column":[],"editor":[],"videographer":[],"position":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n