Aboitiz keen on supplying power to economic zones
By Paul Anthony A. Isla
Reporter

ABOITIZ Equity Ventures (AEV) has expressed keen interest in bidding and supplying power to economic zones under the Philippine Economic Zone Authority (Peza), said Erramon Aboitiz, the company chief operating officer.
       “We’re very keen on doing that. We are hoping that Peza would look at bidding out some of the power requirements of its economic zones,” Aboitiz said.
       He said AEV officials recently met with Peza director general Lilia de Lima to present AEV subsidiary Subic EnerZone Corp.’s (SEZ) achievements at the Subic economic zone.
       SEZ is a consortium composed of AEV, Davao Light and Power Co., San Fernando Electric Light and Power Co., which are two of AEV’s subsidiaries, and Mirant Philippines Corp.
       SEZ was contracted to provide power distribution services to the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) from 2003 until the 2028.
       AEV pays SBMA P40 million annually for the lease of power facilities and other properties.
       Currently, SEZ has paid a total of P120 million to SBMA. SEZ has lowered the cost of power and further brought down its systems loss.
       SEZ’s systems loss dropped to about 6.86 percent to date from 15 percent when it took over SBMA’s power distribution utility in October 2003.
       With the systems loss reduction, Aboitiz said its customers saved 14.5 centavos a kilowatt-hour on their electricity consumption. 
       “We were able to cut power costs by P0.50 a kilowatt, as we have improved electricity service at SBMA,” Aboitiz said.
       In 2003, SEZ committed to invest P350 million over five years to improve Subic’s power distribution system.
       Aboitiz has so far invested P200 million with plans of investing another P50 million early this year.
       Aboitiz likewise welcomed the move of the Energy Regulatory Commission to provide incentives to distribution utilities that are able to lower their systems loss.
       “We welcome that very much. At the end of the day, power projects require investments. It is always good to give incentives to people,” Aboitiz said.