Cebu guv plans to form body to handle power concerns

Sunstar Cebu

CEBU CITY -- To help Cebu’s residents understand and think of solutions to the power situation, Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia proposed Friday the creation of a power task force that will meet regularly, “brownouts or no brownouts.”

She said she will draft an executive order that will create the group and encourage more proactive action on problems like power shortages.

Included in the team will be the Department of Energy (DOE), National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP), Cebu Energy Development Corp. (CEDC), Korean Electric Power Corp. (Kepco), all other power generators, and distributors like the Visayan Electric Power Corp. (Veco) and electric cooperatives.

Garcia said she came up with the idea after realizing that nobody is tasked, at present, to oversee the situation in Cebu.

Coordination

CEDC president Jesus N. Alcordo agreed with the idea, raising the need to evaluate the power supply situation consistently.

“This should result to a better coordination. I think the idea of meeting regularly is good,” Alcordo said.

“What we need is the synchronization of our actions and the coordination of our plans,” Garcia said. “It is about time that we do this. Every time there is a brownout, the media would ask me if I will call a meeting.”

With power supply from Luzon unavailable, rotational brownouts are expected to continue this weekend.

“We’ve been having rotation outages of two hours since this morning due to at least 200 megawatts (mw) power supply shortage from the grid,” said Veco spokesperson Ethel Natera.

The High-Voltage Direct Current or Luzon-Visayas link has been scheduled for maintenance from 4 a.m. of Oct. 27 to 5 p.m. tomorrow, Oct. 31.

The affected areas Friday were parts of Naga City; B. Rodriguez Ave., J. Llorente St. and Fuente Osmeña Circle in Cebu City; and Barangays Ibabao, Guizo and Mantuyong in Mandaue City, as well as the Mandaue Public Market.

Interruptible Load customers or commercial establishments that use their own generators like Ayala Center Cebu and Country Mall, took some of the pressure off Veco.

“By Monday, we expect that there will be an improvement (in our power supply),” Natera said. “We expect that by Sunday there will be less power consumption, as the people will be going home to the provinces.”

At the meeting with the governor, the NGCP confirmed the power deficit, but assured there will be additional power for the grid before the end of the month.

As to the creation of the task force, Provincial Attorney Marino Martinquilla said under the Local Government Code, the governor is authorized to address general welfare, and that includes the authority to convene such a group.

“It is time that we recognize our responsibilities here in seeing to it that we give as much importance to the power situation as we do with other operations in the province,” Garcia said.

This body will meet at least twice a month. (BAP/RRF/Sun.Star Cebu)

Published in the Sun.Star Cebu newspaper on October 30, 2010.