City, VECO sign MOA for power in SRP

CEBU, Philippines - The Cebu City government and the Visayan Electric Company yesterday signed a memorandum of agreement for electricity in the 300-hectare South Road Properties.

The signatories were Mayor Tomas Osmeña on behalf of the city while VECO was represented by its president Dennis Garcia, the signing was witnessed by key officials of both parties.

Osmeña said that VECO will supply electricity to the entire facility as well as fill in the demands of the locators.

The city will collect an access fee of 20 centavos for every kilowatt hour and charge a collection not higher than the usual rate outside SRP.

The mayor said that VECO was chosen as the power provider of the 300-hectare facility because it falls under its franchise area.

VECO holds a legislative franchise to construct, operate and maintain a distribution system for the conveyance of electric power to the end users in the cities of Cebu, Mandaue, Talisay and Naga as well as the municipalities of Minglanilla, San Fernando, Consolacion and Liloan.

VECO will arrange for the design, engineering supply and construction of an electric power distribution system in the SRP.

The city will require each locator in the SRP to execute an agreement to purchase electricity from VECO at a rate to be authorized by the Energy Regulatory Commission.

For now the city cannot estimate the expected power demand in the SRP as more locators have yet to come in. So far, only Bigfoot Global Solutions Inc. and Filinvest Land Inc. are the locators.

Bigfoot started its project in the area in the middle of 2007 and has paid the P25 million for its 25-year lease payment for a two-hectare lot for its expansion studio.

Just recently, FLI and the city closed a P25-billion sale over a 50.6- hectare area for office and high-end residential spaces.

For water, a Joint Venture Selection Committee will already go over the proposal of Pilipinas Water Resource Inc. — Ferliza C. Contratista/BRP   (THE FREEMAN)