Consumers being served by the Bantayan Island Electric Cooperative  (BANELCO) could expect full electrification of the entire area by year 2022, based on the energization program being cast by the power utility.

As noted by BANELCO General Manager Lee Rivera, “our main objective is total electrification of every household in our franchise area consistent with the national government’s strategy.”

The island is being touted as the ‘next major tourist destination’ in the country, and for this goal to flourish, it was noted that the provision of efficient and reliable energy services could be among the driving forces to it.

Rivera opined that “as a tourist destination, reliable power supply is a vital factor to address the consequent growth in power demand and to sustain the economic development of Bantayan island.”

To prepare the island for tourist influx, BANELCO emphasized that it has also been reinforcing its distribution network for prospective surge in power demand.

Rivera noted the utility firm has “upgraded its distribution system, especially the backbone lines in anticipation to the increase in load demand.”

He said the rollout of projects had been anchored on its applied capital expenditures (capex) that had been subsequently approved by the Energy Regulatory Commission.

Essentially, the power company pointed out that its ongoing system upgrade will enable it “to avoid power outages due to overloaded conductors and minimize line faults.”

The electric cooperative’s bid for total electrification of its service area in the next two years is underpinned by a power supply agreement (PSA) it recently inked with Isla Norte Energy Corporation (INEC) -- for the latter to provide its additional power supply. INEC is a joint venture between Garcia-led Vivant Energy Corporation and Gigawatt Power Inc.

In August this year, INEC has already started shoring up power supply within BANELCO’s service area by deploying generating sets (gensets) that have aggregate capacity of 3.0 megawatts.

Rivera emphasized “the additional 3.0MW gensets somehow stabilized the power supply situation in the island and significantly improved the power supply reliability in the island which will benefit over 33,000 connected customers.”