Napocor earns P634M from 1-day sales scheme

State-owned National Power Corp. (Napocor) has reported that earnings from One-day Power Sales Program (ODPS) amounted to P634.02 million for the first eight months of 2001.

The January to August 2001 ODPS level was only 36 percent short of Napocor’s P1 billion year-end target.

But Napocor said that a minimal increase in energy sales was attained compared to August 2000. There was no comparative figure for the eight-month period in 2000.

"This was due to a number of suspension/cancellations of ODPS caused by the frequent outages of Napocor and Manila Electric Co. (Meralco)’s baseload plants," the company said.

Napocor noted that for the billing month of August alone, Napocor had issued a total of nine days ODPS suspension during peak period.

However, it was noted that one of the factors that influence the steady growth in the ODPS sales this year was the agreement between Napocor and the Meralco that allowed the utility’s embedded customers to join the Napocor sales program.

Embedded customers refer to bulk power users (mainly from big industries) that generate their own electricity but are operating within the franchise area of a private electric utility.

The power firm, under the ODPS, is allowed to sell its unutilized capacity to its customers through an electronic, on-line bidding system. These customers should have a self-generation capacity of at least one megawatt that they operate regularly to be able to join the program.

The Napocor data indicated that the minimal increase in ODPS sales was realized despite the additional customers that were recorded during the period.

The newly-accredited customers of Napocor and Meralco for the period under review include: Asian Transmission Corp., San Miguel Yamamura Asia Corp., Dragon Textile Mills Inc., Premium Packaging International Inc., and Fibertex Corp.

The ODPS now has a total of 60 accredited customers, 49 of which actively participate in the daily bidding.

Aside from monetary benefits from ODPS, the program has recovered lost Napocor market and used ODPS as a marketing tool to attract customers for a long-term power supply agreement. – Donnabelle Gatdula