NOTE: THIS PRESS RELEASE WAS FIRST PUBLISHED IN THE BOHOL CHRONICLE’S SUNDAY PRINT EDITION.
Residents of the two-barangay island Hingutanan of Bien Unido town are set to enjoy electricity 24/7 for the first time.
This is an offshoot of follow ups made by Rep. Erico Aristotle Aumentado of Bohol’s 2nd District with the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) as early as mid-2019.
Aumentado brokered the agreement with the Bohol II Electric Cooperative (Boheco II) for the latter to install the service drop wires and electric meters to all residences in the island once NGCP, through its winning bidder, delivers the generator set and accessories for the Hingutanan Diesel Power Plant (DPP).
Boheco II, it was learned, was set to start installing the service drops and electric meters last Tuesday, a day after the items were delivered.
Hingutanan is one of seven islands benefitting from NGCP’s off-grid project.
Aumentado said prior to the 2019 campaign period, the bid documents for generators for power plants in seven islets in his district were already out, but the bidding itself was overtaken by the election ban.
The solon’s energization program is providing power even to the farthest islets, either by submarine cable as what he did in Mahanay Island, or overhead cables, or if too far from the mainland, by stand-alone generator sets.
NGCP had provided Aumentado with a copy of the documents that specified the number and capacities of the power generator sets, the islands or islets where these were to be installed, and the mode of transport of the same from Manila to the destinations.
The solon said energization is the key to an island’s development. It will allow students to study at night, their fishermen parents to repair their nets and do other work at night, and run freezers and refrigerators to hold their surplus catch instead of having to sell them cheap.
Bid out was the supply, delivery, installation, test, and commissioning of various diesel gensets and associated electrical equipment and balance of plant for the electrification of seven new areas in Bohol under the off-grid electrification project.
The technical specifications include the provision of separate generator control and protection panel to be installed in the containerized pre-fabricated control house, for installation as indicated in the specifications attached to the procurement documents, and designed to operate in parallel with other generating set or sets in the future.
The gensets required are one 100 kilowatts (kW), two 75 kW, one 50kW, eight 30 kW and two 20 kW diesel engine generating sets and associated electrical equipment for installation in seven separate new plant sites, namely the diesel power plants (DPPs) of Hingutanan, Bilangbilangan II, Malingin, Sagasa, Cataban, Gaus and Maomawan islets.
The document also suggested modes of transportation from the port of Manila to the islets – some through Cebu City, others through Tagbilaran City, and others directly to the islet concerned, by special trip or dragging. (BY JUNE S. BLANCO)