Manila Times.net
Published : Wednesday, April 04, 2012 00:00
THE Lopez Group, as reported in the Manila Standard Today banner story yesterday, is blaming the National Power Corporation (Napocor) and the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP() for the expensive electricity and the eight-hour blackouts in Mindanao.
It’s true. And both Napocor and NGCP should admit it, instead of blaming others.
The Napocor and NGCP are the ones “that dictate the rates and which areas [are] to be supplied with or deprived of electricity,” the MST story quotes Asst. VP of the Lopez’s Energy Development Corporation Alejandro Catacutan. He was explaining the situation to Agham party list Rep. Angelo Palmones. Mr. Catacutan told the congressman that his company, the Mt. Apo Geothermal Power Plant, had not increased its rate of P2.80 per kilowatt hour of electricity. It appears that other companies generating electricity, including coal-powered generating units, have also been selling power to the Napocor at the same rate as usual but Napocor consolidates all the power it gets and NGCP distributes it to consumers at a uniform high rate of P8 per kWh.
Mr. Catacutan explained that his company and other generating companies had no say in distribution and how much the electric cooperatives who buy power and supply it to end users and big users pay for electricity. The generating companies sell all their power to Napocor, which then turns it over to the NGCP.
“The NGCP controls the transmission lines that it uses to distribute to end-users such as electric cooperatives like Cotelco, the malls and other big consumers, according to the designs of Napocor,” said Mt. Catacutan.
The state-owned Napocor combines all the power generated by other producers — like the Lopezes’ Mt. Apo Geothermal plant, the Aboitizes coal-powered plants and power barges, the diesel-fired producers and Napocor’s own Agus-Pulangui hydropower plants—making up a total generating capacity of 1,100 megawatts.
Mr. Catacutan said electricity generated by coal plants was sold to Napocor for P6 per kWh, electricity generated by diesel-powered plants and from power barges were sold for P12 per kWh, geothermal electricity was sold for P2. 80, and electricity from hydrothermal generating plants was sold for P2 per kWh.
‘Manipulating the cost and supply’
Both the Meralco executive and Congressman Palmones used the words “manipulating the cost and supply of electricity” to describe what Napocor was doing in Mindanao.
“We want President Benigno Aquino III to ask his men to explain why Napocor and NGCP are doing this to the people of Mindanao,” Palmones said (according to the MST story). Then he said, “Now we have every reason to believe that this is all about forcing the people to submit to privatization.”
Privatization could lead to a lumad revolt
The cheapest source of electricity is that coming from the Agus-Polangui river’s hydrothermal plants. At one time these plants could generate as much as 600 megawatts when run at full capacity.
But Agus-Polangui is silted and the plants need repair but were not rehabilitated. Now the plants generate only 100 megawatts.
Rep. Palmones said, according to ther MST report: “That is precisely why we wanted the President to tell us why the government failed to rehabilitate the Agus-Pulangui. Is it because they deliberately allowed the plants to deteriorate so that when those were privatized, [the electricity] could be sold at a cheaper price?”
It sounds to us like Rep. Palmones was being sarcastic. For selling the Agus-Pulangui plants to private corporations would almost surely result in the power generated by them being sold for a higher price than the present P2 per kWh.
But privatizing the Agus-Polangui could lead to a lumad revolt, another MST report yesterday said.
In the story “Sale of hydro plants may lead to unrest,” MST’s Rio N. Araja writes that a government plan to sell the Agus-Pulangui hydropower plants could trigger an uprising from lumad groups. The sources quoted are former and current employees of the National Power Corp.
“Rabindranath Quilala, secretary general of the Buhayin ang Napocor Atin To or Banat organzation, told reporters they have been in constant touch with the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) that had been warning of social unrest if the sale was pursued.”
“These hydropower plants are something they [the lumads and the Moros] treasure very much.”
Mr. Quilala’s suggestion is for government to just rehabilitate the plants not to privatize them. He said these plants have been providing cheap electricity in Mindanao instead of privatizing them.
There is also a plan to build a new Pulangui Dam. MST quotes Ghadzali Jaafar, vice chairman for political affairs of the MILF, as saying that his organization wanted to help solve the power crisis in Mindanao, “but would resist the construction of the Pulangi Dam 5 because it would submerge the burial grounds of the Monobos and the B’laan.”
Senate probe into Mindanao power crisis
Senator Francis “Chiz” Escudero last week filed a resolution in the Senate calling for a probe into the Mindanao power crisis. Sen. Escudero is a member of the Joint Congressional Power Commission (JCPC). He wants the Senate Committee on Energy to immediately conduct an inquiry to (1) ascertain what the true power deficit situation is in Mindanao in order to, (2) determine what issues must be resolved so that (3) policy reforms and legislation could be passed. Legislation could include amending Republic Act 9136 or the EPIRA Law.
Experts, backed by sound statistics, have been complaining that the EPIRA, which, was enacted to reduce the high cost of electricity and solve the power problems of the country, has in fact made the situation worse.
It is a good thing that Secretary Jose Rene D. Almendras can assure the public that Metro Manila will not have the awful experience of the people in Mindanao. But something must really be done to solve our power problem. It is one of the major reasons our country is not attracting more foreign investments.
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