Petron officials confirmed their plan of putting up a 70 megawatt coal plant in Batangas amounting to P10 billion. The country’s largest oil company says they are to hit two targets in this plan – the coal plant that will produce power will also be used as their refinery.
Lubin B. Nepomuceno, Petron senior vice-president and general manager, said the coal plant would have two 35-MW turbines, while two steam boilers will be used for the operation of their oil refinery. Furthermore, Nepomuceno said that the resulting steam will be used for two purposes, which is for the distillation of the refinery, and the steam will consequently be used to power the turbines which will produce the power.
What exactly is a coal power plant? This is a kind of power plant that burns fossil fuel such as coal to produce electricity. Yes, this power generating structure has that industrial importance. But has everybody been thinking of the effects of these coal power plants?
Before that, think of this. Here in Batangas, we are experiencing the effects of El Nino. Since when did we have the last rainfall? Drought is the worst thing we could experience especially during summer. Right now, the temperature’s getting higher from morning until late in the afternoon and then it will drop again in the evening. Kaya ‘wag ka nang magtaka kung madami ngayon ang sinisipon at inuubo dito sa Batangas.
A few weeks ago, there were rotating brownouts in some parts of Luzon when the Sual power plant in Pangasinan went down. Worse thing is, El Nino will cause further shortage in power supply from hydro-power plants not only in Luzon but in the southern parts of the country as well.
Because of this, the Department of Energy will be subjected to generate power supply from other resources. Here, the coal-fired plants will be their last resort. Going back to the question posted earlier, have you been thinking of what these coal power plants can cause us?
Extensive global warming and health risks. In the US, studies have revealed that nearly 24,000 early deaths were reported due to the harmful emmissions from coal-fired plants. Causes of deaths include lung cancer, asthma attacks, and heart attacks. Can we do something to prevent this from happening here in our country?
Electricity is important but health, it’s vitality is heavier. So will it be a choice between bad situation and worse solution?
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