• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson yesterday said that Negros Occidental, the top solar electricity producer in the country, remains open to investors of renewable energy.
“We continue to invite power producers in renewable energy to invest in our province,” Lacson said.
Negros Occidental has a generation capacity of 341.5 megawatts from five solar power producers operating seven plants across the province.
However, it was not spared by the regionwide power outage last week, which badly affected the whole Panay Island.
The governor said that while Negros has renewable power plants, investors of conventional power plants have cancelled their plans to invest in the province.
He noted that the power supply in the province “comes from within and outside of Negros.”
The Regional Development Council in Western Visayas earlier called on the Energy Regulatory Commission to investigate the cause of the prolonged power outages that hit Western Visayas on Jan. 2.
Lacson said he supports the move in Congress “to investigate and find ways how this occurrence can be prevented in the future in any part of the country.”
Senators led by Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri have expressed dismay and concern over the widespread power disruption in Western Visayas, where power has been fully restored only three days after.
The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines, in its latest statement, said the synchronization to the grid and the full operation of the Palm Concepcion Power Corp. have normalized transmission operations. | GB
