A subsidiary of Vivant Corp. was declared the winning bidder for the contract to supply electricity to Bantayan Island in Cebu province.
In a disclosure on Wednesday, Vivant said the Bantayan Electric Cooperative (Banelco) issued the notice of award to Vivant Integrated Diesel Corp. (VIDC) after a competitive selection process (CSP) was conducted.
A joint venture of Vivant unit Vivant Energy Corp. and Gigawatt Power Inc., VIDC shall supply 15 megawatts (MW) of electricity to Banelco for 15 years.
The power deal, to be signed before the end of the year, is subject to the approval of the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC).
“The project will add to the capacity of Vivant Energy, as it continues to focus its growth in the off-grid small power utilities group sector,” the listed firm said.
In September, Banelco conducted the CSP for the procurement of power supply to Bantayan.
The competitive bidding is in line with the Supreme Court’s ruling in May that all power supply agreement applications submitted to the ERC on or after June 30, 2015 must undergo CSP in compliance with a Department of Energy policy issued in 2018.
The CSP aims to ensure a fair, reasonable and cost-effective generation charge for consumers, under a transparent bidding between generation companies and distribution utilities.
Banelco said peak demand for the island reached 6 MW in 2018, higher than the current PSA covering 4.892 MW, which it inked with the Bantayan Island Power Corp. that would lapse in 2021.
The power co-op expects greater disparity between supply and demand as the latter has been growing at an average rate of 8 percent since 2009, and that annual growth of 10 percent is projected from 2019 onward.
Demand is expected to hit 13 MW by 2023, higher by almost thrice than its current electricity supply.
Vivant Corp. has interests in firms involved in electric power generation (renewable and nonrenewable energy), electric power distribution and retail electricity supply.
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(Published in Manila Times, 1 November 2019)
