Philippine Star Updated April 18, 2012 03:28 PM
MANILA, Philippines – A number of establishments, most of them power-dependent, closed shop in Kidapawan City after the local electric cooperative announced Wednesday the month-long rotating blackouts that would last from six to eight hours daily.
Vicente Baguio, spokesperson for the Cotabato Electric Cooperative (Cotelco), said power shutdown would commence 8:30 a.m., and restore around 12:45 p.m. on a daily basis.
The rotating blackout would again resume for the evening schedule between 5 p.m. until 10 p.m., he said.
“What income would we get with these long hours of brownouts? How long are we going to suffer?” asked Armalyn Bravo, a beautician at a salon in Kidapawan City.
Armalyn’s salon located along Quezon Boulevard was supposed to open at 8 a.m. Wednesday but since there was no power, she has to close shop.
Dan Sambrano of the Metro Kidapawan Chamber of Commerce and Industry Foundation, Inc., (MKCCFI) said at least 50 percent of the small businesses in the province closed shop due to the unstable power supply.
Many of these establishments, he said, are internet shops and beauty salons.
In the city alone, some 18 net cafes have closed since the implementation of the long power shutdown.
The rotating blackouts in North Cotabato started October last year and worsened on February this year when the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP), the transmission facility, deducted 30 percent of its regular load dispatch for Cotelco.
Starting Wednesday, Baguio said Cotelco will only be given 42.7 percent of the total power requirement for North Cotabato or 15.4 megawatts of the 36 megawatts of load dispatch.
“This is the reason why starting Wednesday our service areas would be experiencing six to eight hours of rotating brownouts daily,” he explained.
The cooperative, however, is asking to be given a provisional authority by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to buy power, at least eight megawatts, from a power barge in Davao City.
“If, indeed, the ERC grants this provisional authority, at least 8 MW would be added to our 15.4 MW power requirement,” said Baguio.
Meantime, the Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP) in North Cotabato is contemplating on filing a case against the National Power Corporation (Napocor) and the Power Sectors Assets, Liabilities, and Management (PSALM) for their refusal to grant the Cotelco 26 megawatts from the two geothermal power plants located at Mount Apo.
The provincial council believes that as host of these plants the province is entitled to a 25-percent load dispatch daily from the Mount Apo geothermal power plants.
“Despite the existing laws, we are at the mercy of the power transmission and generation facilities as to whether or not they would give us the needed power for the province. We are doing now a very careful study of the cases that would be filed against these agencies. We don’t want to go wrong this time,” said Cotabato 2nd district board member Jose Ping Tejada, chair of the SP Cotabato Committee on Power.
Earlier, the city council advised that it would go to court should Napocor and PSALM still refused to dispatch 26 megawatts from the 104-MW geothermal plants at Mt. Apo. -- with PNA
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