Even Mayor Glenda Aguilar and residents of Caramoran población are envious of Palumbanes Island’s good fortune, with the National Power Corporation’s Solar Photovoltaic-Diesel Hybrid System providing 24-hour electricity with no brownouts.
The project, which was included in the ceremonial inauguration of NPC’s San Miguel-Viga 69 KV Transmission Line and Viga 5MVA Substation last Friday (June 21), was actually completed and began operation this March 2024.
Constructed by Greenheat Corporation at a contract cost of P17,919,295.60 including lot acquisition, the facility sits on a 1,000 square meters plot on a hill at some distance from the diesel genset power plant that was built a few years ago.
Power is generated from 84 solar panels supported by steel frames and reinforced concrete columns, with the excess solar energy during sunny days stored in an Energy Storage System (ESS) and released during peak hours.
With a maximum generation capacity of 40 kilowatt-peak (kWp), the Palumbanes hybrid system was among the four projects prioritized by then NPC President and CEO Pio Benavidez within the 2021-2025 timeframe of its Missionary Electrification Plan (MEP) for off-grid areas.
It is the first of its kind completed in Luzon and will reduce the cost of electricity and result in fuel savings from the operation of the diesel genset as well as significant reduction in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from the facility.
In her message during the Viga inauguration, Mayor Aguilar profusely expressed her gratitude to NPC for building the facility in Palumbanes whose population is about 3,000.
“Its power supply is much better than in the town proper,” she stressed, with many población residents presently enduring rotating brownouts since the first week of June.
The islet, classified by the national government as a Geographically-Isolated and Disadvantaged Area (GIDA), is now slowly improving through the assistance of various agencies and the local government unit, the chief executive stated.
A sitio of barangay Toytoy, Palumbanes residents are often isolated and cannot venture to the main island during heavy seas and bad weather, the mayor stressed.
With a voting population of 1,015 in 633 households, the Palumbanes group is composed of three islands, with most of the homes situated in Parongpong Island. The other islands are Tignob, which boasts of a white beach, and Calabaguio.