ISABEL, Leyte — A Japanese firm will build a 70-megawatt diesel power plant inside the 425-hectare Leyte Industrial Development Estate (LIDE) in this town, an official confirmed Sunday.
LIDE Management Corporation General Manager Eddie Agustin said that Japanese firm Marubeni Corporation will need about two hectares to build the facility. The official declined to disclose total investments.
“Survey of the area is on-going and they are targeting to start supplying power by September next year,” Agustin said.
Marubeni’s construction of a power plant will help ensure power stability for two major LIDE locators – Philippine Phosphate Fertilizer Corporation (PhilPhos) and Philippine Associated Smelting and Refining Corporation (PASAR).
PhilPhos is the country’s leading producer of phosphatic fertilizer with a rated capacity of 1.17 million metric tons every year.
PASAR, on the other hand, owns and operates the only copper smelter and refinery in the country. Its primary product is the electrolytic copper cathodes, the raw material used for manufacturing various kinds of electric cables, telecommunication wires, copper shapes and copper-alloy products.
Both firms directly get their power supply needs from the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines, sourced from the nearby Leyte Geothermal Power Plant.
“We will now have an alternative energy source with the new power plant inside LIDE. Operations will not be disrupted in case of power shutdown caused by natural calamities,” Agustin told reporters.
Located in this town, LIDE is owned by the National Development Company, a government-owned and -controlled corporation attached to the Department of Trade and Industry. The property was established in November 1979 through Letter of Instruction No. 962 to spur economic development in Eastern Visayas and as prime site for heavy industries.
LIDE was declared a Special Economic Zone under Republic Act (RA) 7195 as amended by RA 8748 or the Special Economic Zone Act of 1995. (PNA)