By Moh I Saaduddin/Manila
In contrast to previous rotational brownout, power outages in Mindanao have worsened with daily brownout durations of eight to nine hours, particularly in Kidapawan City and North Cotabato province.
Officials cite the on-going maintenance of two power generators in the provinces of Lanao del Norte and Misamis Oriental as reason for the power outages.
Cotabato Electric Co-operative (Cotelco) officials said they are now implementing rotating brownouts in north Cotabato due to repairs and maintenance shutdown of power plants, including hydropower facilities in Lanao del Norte and Misamis Oriental.
The unit 2 of STEAG State Power Inc (SPI), a coal-fired power plant in Misamis Oriental, went on an unplanned shutdown after it developed technical problems on July 29.
Shutting down the unit was necessary to prevent further damage to the generator, Cotelco said, citing STEAG.
The Agus 4 hydroelectric power plant in Lanao also began a rehabilitative shutdown, compounding rotational brownouts in parts of Mindanao. The brownouts are expected to last until mid-October. North Cotabato requires 28 megawatts power. However, due to limited supply from the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP), it gets only 18MW, including that supplied by Therma Marine.
“As an electric distribution utility, we are forced to effect load curtailment in our service area from time to time depending on the advice of NGCP until such time that these power plants will be back on line,” Godofredo Homez, Cotelco general manager said in a published report.
South Cotabato and Davao areas also started implementing rotational power interruption last Friday.
On March 30 last year, former National Economic and Development Authority chief, Dr Gerardo Sicat, published a paper on the Mindanao power problem, describing it as a crisis waiting to happen.
“Inaction on the required policy front means the day will arrive and blow up the picture. That has now become a reality,” he said.
Sicat said a lack of strong national leadership on the issue let conflicting interests to create a stalemate in decision-making.
He recalled the Luzon power crisis of the early 1990s.
Energy consumer groups in Mindanao have been campaigning for a repeal or amendment of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Epira) to save the power industry from the clutches of profit-oriented private firms.
At a press conference on September 1 last year – at the culmination of the Kalivungan Festival here - journalists briefed senator Joseph Victor Ejercito on the power situation in Mindanao.
The senator promised to address the Senate to review the Epira of 2001.
“I have readied a privilege of speech on the issue, but there are now controversies in the senate and Congress. This is delaying the matter,” the senator claimed.
Ejercito said he would push for the adoption of power shortage-mitigating measures to include the development of renewable energy and even nuclear power sources.
He underscored the significance of pursuing the mothballed Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP) for a start.
At the same press conference, Estrada and Governor Emmylou Talino-Mendoza of North Cotabato province said the Epira has converted electricity from utility to commodity in a manner vulnerable to manipulations by unscrupulous private power firms.
During his Mindanao mid-term election campaign, Estrada had slammed the Aquino government for its alleged failure to spend in 2011 a P2bn energy development fund to rehabilitate dilapidated hydropower plants in Mindanao, particularly the Agus complex in Lanao. – Manila Times
