by Alexander D. Lopez November 24, 2015
Davao City – The Mindanao
Development Authority (MinDA) assured that Mindanao will “absolutely be
brownout-free by middle of next year.”
The assurance was made by Romeo
Montenegro, director of MinDA. during the opening of the Power Conference held
at the Pinnacle Hotel here on Monday.
The conference that was facilitated
by MinDA, together with the Energy Regulatory Board (ERB), Department of Energy
(DOE), Mindanao Power Monitoring Committee (MPMC), Davao Light and Power
Company (DLPC) and Jaycees International, was attended by about 100
representatives from electric cooperatives and other stakeholders in the power
industry in Davao region and nearby provinces.
Montenegro said that the government
was already working on a long-term solution to the problem of power shortages
in Mindanao.
“In 2012, the government said enough
was enough. We had the Mindanao Power Summit that was joined by President
Aquino,” Montenegro said, adding that two months after the summit, the
president issued Executive Order 81 creating the MPMC chaired by MinDA and
co-chaired by DOE.
And for the last three years, the
committee has served as a “venue for discussing and working out immediate and
long-term measures to address the power situation in Mindanao.”
Among the long-term solutions was
the transformation of the sources of power in Mindanao from hydro to
diversified mixed sources.
“In the next five years, we are
looking at the entry of other power plants, diversified from hydro. Coal,
diesel and other renewable energy sources will be coming in. Mindanao will have
diversified mix sources of power,” Montenegro emphasized.
The rise in the demand for
electricity in Mindanao has continued to grow for the last 14 years with an
average growth rate of six to seven percent, which is higher than national
average.
However, electricity supply has not
grown and has even deteriorated due to its over-reliance on hydropower.
“For the last 20 to 30 years we’ve
been relying heavily on hydro power, the Agus in Lanao Sur and the Pulangi in
Bukidnon,” he said.
And with hydro power being
threatened by climate change, particularly the El Niño phenomenon, less rain
but more drought could be expected. “We don’t have enough water to run these
hydro plants,” Montenegro stressed.
Diversified power sources will come
on line, some by the end of 2015, others by the middle of 2016 and the rest by
2017 and 2018, he said.
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