By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga

Palm Concepcion Power Corporation (PCPC), which operates in Concepcion town, Iloilo province, will expand its current power generation capacity depending on “the readiness of the market,” its president, Roel Castro, said.
Castro, who was in Bacolod City Friday for the PCPC Customer Appreciation Night, expressed plans to put up another unit that will produce 135 Megawatts (MW) of additional power.
He said their existing 135MW coal-fired power plant is serving the three power cooperatives in Negros Occidental, one in Negros Oriental, two in Iloilo, and another in Leyte.
“We are also looking at renewable energy especially in hydro,” he noted.
Castro said their hydro projects may be in Mindanao and “will depend on where the resources are available.”
“It will be probably 16-20 MW projects,” he said.
However, it will not be accessible to power distributors in the Visayas as there is still no interconnection of the power grid between the two areas, Castro said.
Meanwhile, he said, as part of PCPC’s advocacy to protect the environment, the firm has planted mangroves and a maritime sanctuary, and currently in the process of asking the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to adopt the mountain area located in the back of their plant.
“Our principle is that an industrial development should co-exist with the environment and the community,” Castro said./WDJ