Business World Online
Posted on November 05, 2012 09:44:44 PM
DAVAO CITY -- The Mindanao power situation has improved a bit after STEAG State Power, Inc. started operating its first coal-fired plant, adding 105 megawatts (MW) to the Mindanao Grid on Sunday afternoon.
SHORTAGE PERSISTS
The Web site of the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) showed that Mindanao yesterday had a 322-MW power shortage, with system peak demand of 1226 MW outstripping a system capacity of just 904 MW.
NGCP’s forecast before the preventive maintenance of the two units of STEAG’s power plants on Oct. 4, showed a 1870-MW shortage, with system peak demand of 1,232 MW and system capacity of 1,045 MW.
However, when the two STEAG plants were switched off, the power shortage in Mindanao ranged from 300 to 500 MW.
The company decided to conduct a preventive maintenance on its power plants last month in its efforts to improve their efficiency and reliability.
The company said the scheduled maintenance works: "will bring long-term benefits for Mindanao power consumers in terms the power plant’s operational reliability." The company said that during the first six years of its operations, which started, in 2006, the availability rate of its plant was 93% and that its unplanned outage was about 1%.
It said that it is confident that the availability rate will not go below 91% by end of the year because all its plants have been rehabilitated.
Both STEAG’s coal-fired plant units, which are in Misamis Oriental, provide about 20% of the entire island’s current power capacity.
Mindanao has been having problems with its power requirement, which could reach to a total of as much as 1,300 MW during peak hours.
What helped alleviate the power situation in Mindanao were the power barges of the Therma Marine, Inc., a subsidiary of the Aboitiz Power Corp. Power from the barges, whose combined output was 192 MW. The output of these power barges was contracted to 23 electric cooperatives and the Davao Light and Power Co.
Department of Energy Undersecretary Josefina Patricia M. Asirit said in the text message yesterday that the department will be able to assess the power supply situation after the PMS of the second unit of the power plant on Nov. 10.
Likewise, NGCP Spokesperson Cynthia P. Alabanza said that based on the average estimates of NGCP, there are still two to four-hour rotating brownouts in Mindanao, which are expected to ease after the completion of the maintenance works on the second power plant.
Meanwhile, Davao City’s power utility is expecting demand to increase by 70.4 MW starting the last quarter of this year until 2015.
This figure is roughly a fourth of the city’s current power demand.
HIGHER DEMAND
Arturo M. Milan, executive vice-president of Davao Light and Power, said this projection prompted the company to sign for additional supply from its sister firms starting this year.
The city currently consumes from 250 to 300 MW of power, or as much as a fourth of Mindanao total power supply.
"We need to prepare for this growing demand," Mr. Milan told BusinessWorld, pointing out that the city’s power requirement is growing by 6.5% annually.
By the fourth quarter of this year, the company will need an additional power of 6.5 MW with the opening of a shopping mall, an ice plant, a food processing plant, a hotel and a call center, he said.
The bulk of the demand will be next year when a steel factory with 17 MW of power demand will start operating. The new requirement for next year, Mr. Milan said, will reach 33.5 MW with four smaller malls, two commercial centers, and another hotel opening.
Ateneo de Davao University has also estimated it would need 2.5 MW more for its expansion.
About two weeks ago, Davao Light and Power signed a supply contract agreement with sister company Therma South, Inc. so it could buy one-third of the 300 MW that the coal-fired power plant of the latter would start producing by the middle of 2015. The company also has existing supply contracts with sister firms Hedcor, Inc., which is into small hydroelectric plant operation, as well as from Therma Marine that operates power barges.
Mr. Milan believes growth in power demand in this city would be much higher than the previous year’s 6.5% annually because of the continuing interest of investors in the city.
"We have a good business climate, so we expect that the demand will even be bigger," he said.
By 2015, he said, the San Vicente Terminal and Brokerage Services, Inc., that would include an cold storage plant and wharf in the neighboring Panabo City, would need an additional 8.5 MW.
This was also confirmed by Alexander N. Valoria, president of the Floirendo-owned Anflo Investment and Management Corp., owner developer of the project.
Mr. Milan said the demand that was included in the projection did not even include property projects that have been taking place within the franchised area of the power company.
In Zamboanga City, business groups hit the local power distribution cooperative for delaying the implementation of the Interruptible Load Program (ILP) that could have saved this city from the daily three- to four-hour rotating outages.
The de-loading program, which should have been piloted in 2010, is a scheme wherein the industrial sector, including commercial establishments that have their own power generating sets (gensets), would temporarily get off the power grid, while the local power distributor would subsidize their fuel cost.
DISTRIBUTOR HIT
In a statement, Pedro Rufo ‘Pocholo’ N. Soliven, president of the Zamboanga Chamber of Commerce Foundation, Inc., who also heads the Task Force ILP, said the group is demanding the Zamboanga City Electric Cooperative (Zamcelco) to explain the reason for the delay in the ILP implementation even as business establishments have already enrolled in the program.
The scheme would have generated more than eight MW for the city, he said.
"With the implementation of the Interruptible Load Program and Time of Use Program, we can easily solve the power deficiency and avert the rotational power curtailment the city is experiencing right now."
"On why this was not implemented and put on stream with a sense of urgency, despite all the kinks that was ironed out, is for the Zamcelco management to answer to its member consumers," Mr. Soliven said in his letter addressed to Charito C. Mabitazan, officer-in charge of Zamcelco installed by the National Electrification Administration (NEA).
Administrator Editha S. Bueno of NEA and Zamcelco Board President Elbert C. Atilano have been furnished a copy of the letter. Officials of Zamcelco were not immediately available for comment on Monday.
"In the spirit of transparency and accountability, Zamboanga power consumers deserve an honest answer. Zamboanga will not be experiencing three to four hours power rotational curtailment if Zamcelco did their part with a sense of urgency," Mr. Soliven said in a separate statement.
Mr. Soliven said business groups in this city, to include Industrial Group of Zamboanga, Inc. and Southern Philippines Deep Sea Fishing Association, are all set for the signing of the agreement with Zamcelco for the scheme’s immediate implementation.
"The industrial firms commit in helping Zamcelco to source the much needed power supply, due to worsening power deficiency," he said.
"I can only sympathize with small business entrepreneurs who cannot afford to buy their own gensets and the lost of opportunities (the rotating power outages) brought to them," Mr. Soliven said.
In the past several months, the state-run National Power Corp. , to which Zamcelco is heavily dependent for its electricity, could only provide 52 MW, a shortfall of 28 MW to satisfy the 80 MW power demand of this city, which is home to about a million population and 90% of the country’s canned sardine manufacturers.
Zamcelco earlier entered into an agreement with Therma Marine to supply the city with 18 MW but this has not prevented the brownouts.
This city’s electricity demand increases at a rate of least 4% per year. -- Carmelito Q. Francisco with Claire-Ann Marie C. Feliciano in Manila and Darwin T. Wee in Zamboanga City source
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