Napocor eyes reduced diesel use under new leadership

STATE-RUN National Power Corp. (Napocor) is seeking to reduce its dependence on diesel as fuel for generation facilities that supply electricity to off-grid areas under its new leadership.

“Right now, the instruction is to decrease dependence on diesel fuel because diesel power plants are basically the majority of the Napocor generation facilities. And these generation facilities are the most expensive that we have,” Napocor President and Chief Executive Officer Jericho Jonas B. Nograles told reporters last week.

Napocor is mandated to provide electricity to remote and island areas not connected to the main grid through its Small Power Utilities Group (SPUG) plants.

At present, the company operates 173 SPUG plants, mostly diesel-powered, across 163 areas.

According to Mr. Nograles, the average cost of electricity generated from diesel stands at P30 per kilowatt-hour, of which P7 is pass-through while the remaining P23 is subsidized.

“The challenge that we have is to lessen dependence on diesel power plants… We’re trying to increase our renewable energy assets to decrease diesel dependence. And we are now currently overhauling the approach because the rollout is a bit slow,” he said.

He said the results of the review on renewable energy expansion may be released within six months.

Meanwhile, Mr. Nograles said Napocor’s “biggest challenge” is the ailing areas with huge debt to the company. “So, that’s under review and finding ways to help them.”

Mr. Nograles assumed the leadership of Napocor on Sept. 11 with a commitment to accelerate the company’s electrification mandate, including the expansion of renewable energy sources.

Before taking the helm of the state-run firm, Mr. Nograles served as vice chairperson of the House Committee on Energy, was a member of the Joint Congressional Power Commission, and participated in the Joint Congressional Committee on Biofuels. — Sheldeen Joy Talavera