Power from irrigation systems can ease Mindanao crisis

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SUNDAY, 22 APRIL 2012 18:24 JENNIFER A. NG / REPORTER

THE government is now looking into the possibility of using irrigation systems to ease the power crisis in the Philippines  particularly in Mindanao.

The Department of Agriculture (DA) said it is now in talks with the Department of Energy to finalize a project which will use irrigation systems to produce electricity. 

“Irrigation systems could supply 15 megawatts of electricity in the country daily. [Power produced from irrigation] could  be cheaper than that produced by private power generators,” said Agriculture Secretary Proceso J. Alcala in a  statement.

The National Irrigation Administration (NIA), an attached agency of the DA, noted that Japan is already using irrigation  systems to supply electricity.

NIA Administrator Antonio Nangel said the system is easy to set up since it will require the installation of a turbine engine in an irrigation canal to turn it into a “mini-hydro power plant.”

The government noted that Japanese investors are keen on undertaking a project which will make use of irrigation  systems to generate electricity. If plans push through, Filipino families could start getting electricity using this scheme  by May 2013. 

The DA calculated that a 15-megawatt power supply could provide electricity to at least 30,000 households on a daily  basis.

Currently, the government through the NIA manages and oversees irrigation systems servicing around 1.5 million hectares of rice farmlands all over the Philippines every crop year.

For 2012 the agency was allotted a budget of P24.45 billion to bring irrigation to an additional 223,850 hectares of rice-growing areas. 

The government frontloaded funds to enable the DA to expand irrigated farmlands and boost its efforts of wiping our  rice imports by 2013.

This year the DA is targeting to produce as much as 19 million metric tons (MMT) of palay by increasing areas planted to palay as well as the roll out of a scheme which calls for a change in the schedule for planting the crop.  article source