The hearing was presided by Atty. Carl Stephen Guzman with Atty. Nesrin Cali acting as clerk of the committee. Both are from the ERC.
The activity was attended by member-consumers, Multi-Sectoral Electrification Advisory Council (MSEAC) of ZAMSURECO II and the media.
Engr. Kenneth Albrecht, Technical Officer, Corporate Planning of ZAMSURECO II who stood as witness for ZAMSURECO II, explained the rationale of the agreement why TSI was chosen to address the deficit in power supply of the province.
“There is no new base power plant that is expected to be operational in Mindanao until year 2015. TSI is the only earliest generation capacity available as base load plant that can be contracted by distribution utilities. With the reduction of Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. Contact for the Supply of Electric Energy (PSALM CSEE), ZAMSURECO II is experiencing 5 hours daily power interruption and TSI is the first available optimum option reducing generation rate for ZAMSURECO II customers,” he said.
The ESA contract, upon approval of the ERC will be in effect for 25 years from the operations’ effective date.
Its rate impact per kilowatt hour as presented in three scenarios during the public hearing is expected to reduce a difference of 0.2967, from Php5.4760 to Php5.1793 with the TSI as its power supplier.
ZAMSURECO II is supplying electricity to 16 municipalities in Zamboanga Sibugay province, 3 in Zamboanga del Sur, four in Zamboanga del Norte, and Vitali town of Zamboanga City.