Bataan folk slam expansion bid of coal power firm

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO—The bid by GN Power Mariveles Coal Plant Ltd. Co. to build a 1,200-megawatt coal-fired power plant has met resistance as residents of Mariveles town in Bataan province claim it has failed to lower electricity costs through its 600-megawatt facility since May 2013.

“GN Power has not delivered on its promised lower power rates. If we allow it to expand operations, we’ll be allowing it another opportunity to deceive the public and further wreak havoc on the environment,” Diana Morales, spokesperson of Coal-Free Mariveles Movement (CFMM), said in a statement read at Friday’s public hearing called by GN Power.

CFMM said generation charges increased from P4.30 per kilowatt hour (kWh) in October to P7.51 per kWh in December or an additional charge of P3.21 per kWh.

Roberto Racelis, public affairs head of GN Power, said the 600-MW plant had been running at half-capacity since June. To meet Bataan’s needs, he said the company buys from the wholesale electricity spot market.

“If [the plant was] fully operational, our generation charge can go between P4 and P4.50 per kWh,” Racelis said on the phone on Friday.

In a report posted on the website of the provincial government in December, Bataan Gov. Albert Garcia said the “power rates in Bataan decreased by P2 per kWh after GN Power partially started operating [in 2013].”

Garcia said the company, in partnership with La Farge Republic Cement, had prevented ash emissions in its plant by converting its fly ash into cement.

GN Power, he said, committed to give 10,000 bags of cement monthly to the provincial government for the latter’s infrastructure projects.

In a telephone interview, Morales said the request of her group to get a copy of an environmental impact assessment of GN Power’s expansion plan went in vain. She said the multipartite committee monitoring the plant has not released information either.

CFMM and Bataeños for Environmental Justice  have asked local governments to tap renewable energy instead. Their lobby went on  as  San Miguel Corp. and Petron build 600-MW and 140-MW coal-fired power plants, respectively, in Barangay Lamao in nearby Limay town.