A. Brown unit inks deal with Agusan co-op

MANILA, Philippines - A. Brown Co. Inc. (ABCI), through its wholly-owned subsidiary Peakpower Energy Inc., has entered into an agreement with Agusan del Sur Electric Cooperative Inc. (Aselco) to supply the cooperative’s power requirements.

The supply deal could help address the power shortage in Mindanao, ABCI said.

Under the deal, both parties agreed on the installation and operation by Peakpower of a complete and fully operational five-megawatt bunker fired power plant within Aselco’s franchise area.

The project will be on a build-operate-maintain-transfer basis with a specified cooperation period.

“We’re grateful to Aselco’s management for their positive outlook and their acceptance of our proposal,” Peakpower president Roel Castro said.

Aselco  president Joel Jumonong, for his part, said the proposed power project is timely since the cooperative is in immediate need of generating capacity for its peaking requirements.

“We need this to fulfill our mandate and to address the adverse effects of the electricity crisis in our area,”  he said.

Aselco has the exclusive franchise to own and operate a system for the distribution of electricity in the City of Bayugan and the municipalities of San Francisco, Prosperidad, Rosario Trento, Bunawan, Veruela, Sta. Josefa, Loreto, Sibagat, Esperanza, Talacogon, La Paz and San Luis, all in the province of Agusan del Sur.

The electric cooperative is also mandated to provide reliable power supply for consumers in its franchise area.

Earlier, because of power supply deficiency, Aselco was compelled to implement manual load dropping and power outages within its franchise area during peak hours.

This has translated to losses for business and related industries, Aselco said.

ABCI and Aselco agreed that there is a need to build new power facility in the area since there is no new large generating capacity scheduled to come online in the Mindanao grid in the next three years.

ABCI also has interests in real estate, agribusiness and investments in listed companies aside from power. The company, through its subsidiary Palm Thermal Consolidated Holdings Corp. (PTCHC), is also involved in the development of the 135-MW coal-fired power plant project in Concepcion, Iloilo.