Manila Times.net
THE government plans to rehabilitate the Agus-Pulangi hydroelectric power complex in Mindanao to help secure the region’s electricity supply. Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Jose Rene Almendras said he asked state-owned National Power Corp. (Napocor) to bring back the hydro facility to its 700-megawatt generating capacity to avert a supply deficiency in Southern Philippines.”We need to rehabilitate and fix up what we can in Agus-Pulangi,” he said.
Mindanao is projected to suffer a repeat of early this year’s blackouts once the dry season hits in 2011.
The region relies on the Agus-Pulangi facility for nearly half of its power supply during normal weather conditions, and as such is severely affected when water levels in reservoirs dry up.
Froilan Tampinco, Napocor president, said they would need P2 billion, which would have to be shouldered by government, to bring back 100 to 200 megawatts to the hydro plants’ output.
”But if we would like to add or uprate some of the facilities, for instance the Pulangi, which will include the cost for dredging, then we are looking at spending about P3 billion,” Tampinco said.
Almendras said the government is banking on the rehabilitation of existing power generating plants in Mindanao to prevent another round of outages next year unless private companies put up new capacity.
The government also has no choice but to continue to spend on repair and maintenance at the Agus-Pulangi facility after lawmakers put its privatization on hold.
Under the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001, the hydro complex should be privatized 10 years after the law was passed.
But the size and affordable power rates offered by the hydro plants, which provide the cheapest source of electricity in Mindanao, have caused worries that electricity bills in the country’s most impoverished region may skyrocket it they were turned over to the private sector.
EUAN PAULO C. AÑONUEVO
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