MANILA – The Western Mindanao Power Corp. (WMPC) and the Zamboanga City Electric Cooperative Inc., under the management of Crown Investment Holdings Inc. (Crown Zamcelco), have reached an agreement to ensure the continuing provision of power to Zamboanga City for a period of 90 days upon the agreement’s signing.
The agreement is currently awaiting final approval by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC).
During the 90-day period, the WMPC will continue to dispatch power to Zamboanga City upon Crown Zamcelco' s nomination and under the terms of the existing power sales agreement (PSA) entered into by the two parties in December of 2015.
Under the agreement, Crown Zamcelco, upon signing, will pay PHP150 million to WMPC as part of its commitment to minimize its outstanding arrears to the power generator which had ballooned to more than PHP467 million in February of 2019 representing unpaid power delivered by WMPC to Zamcelco from October of 2018 to early February of 2019.
On February 4 of this year, WMPC’s 105 mega-watt (MW) bunker fuel-fired power plant in Sangali, Zamboanga City ceased operations after reaching critical supply level and after Crown Zamcelco discontinued its nomination of power from WMPC.
Crown Zamcelco subsequently paid PHP220 million representing past due accounts for the months of October and November 2018 under an initial 60-day compromise agreement with WMPC which took effect last May 5. Under this earlier agreement, WMPC was able to operate and provide power to Zamboanga City during the May 13 local and national elections.
WMPC earlier filed a petition at the ERC seeking relief from the refusal of Crown Zamcelco to pay its past due accounts. Alsons Power and WMPC Corporate Counsel Jun Mata said: “Zamcelco still owes WMPC around PHP97 million but for the sake of the people of Zamboanga we will continue to operate and supply power to Zamcelco despite their outstanding debt.”
“Moreover, everything that WMPC has charged Zamcelco is in the existing power sales agreement between the two parties. Their (Crown Zamcelco) contention of overbilling is just based on their belief that our PSA has not taken effect,” he said.
“We maintain that our PSA became effective when both parties agreed to implement it in December of 2015. We at WMPC and Alsons Power are fully committed to our mandate of providing stable, reliable and affordable power to Zamboanga City and help push its economy forward,” he added.
WMPC is part of the Alsons Power Group – Mindanao’s first and most experienced independent power producer. The group currently has four power facilities in Mindanao with a total capacity of 363 megawatts. (PR)
