One thing about excellent ideas, they most certainly, most of the time have a big price. Our dream, The High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) Interconnection from the mainland has suffered its first major ‘blackeye’.
Transco, which stands for National Transmission Corporation, the new government agency which took over the Napocor’s Transmission Section , as part of Napocor’s privatization, has published its 2006 TDP. TDP stands for Transmission Development Plan. It is a 10-year plan which gets updated each year covering ten year periods. Started in 2004, the TDP has been published by Transco each year since.
In the 2004 TDP, our Island of Catanduanes was included by Transco as one of the islands proposed to get the Island Interconnection from the mainland. We were tentatively scheduled for 2010. At this point the project was under a feasibility study.
In the 2005 TDP, we were moved down for the year 2014. It is important to note that Boracay which is raking in tax money for itself and for our national coffers, was featured in this TDP for the first time.
As you read this, the Boracay Interconnection is either complete or in the process of getting completed.
In the 2006 TDP, Catanduanes and Marinduque appear somewhere in the back indexes of the Development Plan with the following status: PROJECT DROPPED, PROJECT NOT FEASIBLE.
THERE ARE NO DETAILS OFFERED FOR THE CHANGE IN STATUS.
To view the three TDP's above go to:
http://www.transco.ph/projects.asp
The mention of Boracay above is not to express our jealousy over their good fortune with the Island Intercnnection project. We are happy for Boracay and its residents. The reference to Boracay is to point out that they obviously easily qualified to get the project because of their current income from tourism. Our island did not meet the same ECONOMIC REQUIREMENT to make it ‘feasible’ . This simply means that the folks who carried out the study DID NOT SEE OR FORESEE ANY FINANCIAL RETURNS for the project. There was no anticipated income to be had once the project is completed. Thus, it was NOT feasible.
It may seem not feasible at this point for these guys, but this is NOT the end of our battle. This is our island, this is our challenge, we take this battle forward. We do not give up.
Anyone who thinks we do not deserve the same sufficient, affordable, stable, 24 hours-a-day, 7 days a week, power supply that most of our island neighbors enjoy, either does not live on the island of Catanduanes or does not care.
We should NOT and CANNOT accept this decision. If we do, we will remain economically backwards for many years to come.
PLEASE NOTE THAT THE AMOUNT OF POWER AVAILABLE TO US FROM OUR PRESENT POWER GENERATING PLANTS DO NOT MEET THE MINIMUM REQUIRED FOR A SUSTAINED LIGHT TO MEDIUM INDUSTRY.
Big hotels cannot be built on our island and be profitable. We do not even have the capability of running big 3-ph, high horsepower motors. Our electrification is not industry grade. It is the bare minimum so you can read at night and a few other things.
It is very unstable, expensive, unreliable.
Getting the Island Interconnection will solve all these headaches. So, the crusade is on.
Let us find out why our island Interconnection was considered fit for the shelves. Let us find out how the feasibility was carried out, how it was justified as NOT FEASIBLE.
What participation did our island officials make in the feasibility study. Did we have any part in it? Were we invited to participate?
How do we put our Island Interconnection back on the TDP?
We simply cannot and should not give this up.
Joe Joson
Global Catandunganon, California
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