TAGBILARAN CITY, Bohol (PIA) –An innovation that earns Bohol Light Company Incorporated (BLCI) bragging rights for the first of its kind in Bohol, the new 20 mega volt ampere (MVA) mobile substation which its switched on and inaugurated June 20, is seen as an optimal solution in the company’s power network flexibility, connectivity and reliability.
Costing the BLCI some P60 million and taking four years to complete, the new mobile step-down substation can convert the high power voltage into household distribution voltage so that household appliances can be operated without damage.
BLCI Chairman of the Board Alfredo Henares said the P60M facility improves their company’s capacity for growth, reliability and cost efficiency, thus symbolizing the company’s commitment to service for Tagbilaran and Bohol, 20 years after the company took over the defunct Provincial Public Utilities Department by privatization.
BLCI manager Engr. Paulino Almedilla, who stressed on power as a vital component of economic development, said that the new substation was tested last May 18, with the approval from the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines , and during its inauguration, would be serving downtown hospitals, malls and big establishments.
Being mobile, the facility can be pulled out and brought to where a fixed substation is undergoing maintenance activities to temporarily take over the conversion and operation to utility voltage as an emergency back-up power substation.
With the facility, when reliability is assured, this also affords BLCI to address its technical losses, despite the fact that it has already reduced its regional systems losses from 18% to 6%.
Now serving 26,000 consumers from the 11,000 that the former PPUD used to have, BLCI has also tracked the 11 megawatts of peak demand to 30MW at the moment, a testament of growth and efficient service the company has since rendered.
BLCI is taking its best efforts to reduce costs, he shared during the switching on of the facility adding that city consumers are up for a possible P2 decrease per kilowatt hour with the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management (PSALM) contract now determining over 50% of the demand to be sourced out from the Wholesale Electricity Spot (WESM) market, making the emergency power supply contract under a competitive and open bidding for reduced costs.
Moreover, with One Bohol’s joint-Competitive Selection Process, Almedilla said it will significantly reduce losses and this may bring back the original price of power per kilowatt then. He said BLCI is sourcing out until 2023, 50% of its energy requirement from renewable energy sources, while for 2024, BLCI has secured a contact of 50% energy supply from Energy Development Corporation (EDC).
With the setting up of the mobile sub-station facility is the procurement of two vehicles for the transformer and substation management operations support, Almedilla said.
City mayor Jane Yap congratulated BLCI for its dream mobile substation now physically present which can now supply 55% of Tagbilaran City’s power demand.
BLCI president Dennis Villareal makes the inauguration as an important milestone in BLCI history as this complements the BLCI capability in the transferability of power supply in times of emergencies.
The same sentiment was echoed by Congressman Edgar Chatto, who stressed that the additional 20MVA substation enhances reliability and capability of BLCI in times of disaster, and when based in Tagbilaran which is the fulcrum of growth for Bohol, everyone should be able to benefit.
Citing the impact of growth potentially radiating all over Bohol with the BLCI news, Chatto also aspires of the quick completion of the Cebu-Bohol Power Inter-connection Project to set up the much needed redundancy just as clean companies are starting to put up in the mainland power supply, for a more reliable service independent of outside and mostly expensive power. (rahc/PIA-7/Bohol)
