Hard Choices On Power

Higher Cost Or No Electricity At All — Palace
By GENALYN D. KABILING
April 2, 2012, 12:18am


Manila, Philippines - It’s either higher electricity cost or no electricity at all.


Residents, businesses, and industries in Mindanao must make the difficult choice, Deputy Presidential Spokeswoman Abigail Valte said yesterday.


The government is grappling with a worsening power problem in Mindanao, parts of which are experiencing long brownouts.


One solution the government is looking at is the deployment of power barges that will help carry the electricity load during peak hours.


The fielding of power barges means that electric consumers will have to pay 50 centavos more per kilowatt hour (Kwh), a prospect that does not sit well with electric cooperatives.


“While traditionally the cost of electricity is higher in Luzon and Visayas compared to Mindanao, the choices now are higher electricity cost or no electricity,” Valte said over government radio.


She reiterated that everyone must “share the burden in finding a solution to this problem.”


Valte also assured the government is stepping up measures to improve the power situation in Mindanao.


Apart from deploying power barges, the Aquino government has also given the green light for the construction of a new coal-fired power plant and the rehabilitation of Agus 6 hydroelectric plant.


The coal-powered plant will be completed in 2014, while repairs on the Agus facility will reportedly take 30 months.


Mindanao’s power situation is expected to normalize once the plants are online.


Valte said Energy Secretary Rene Almendras is also negotiating with the Commission on Audit (COA) to allow a mothballed power plant in Iligan City to operate amid while problems regarding its ownership are threshed out.


President Benigno S. Aquino III is expected to attend a summit of power stakeholders in Mindanao after the Holy Week to get their reactions to measures to resolve the shortage.


The dialogue, organized by the Mindanao Development Authority and the Department of Energy, will reportedly be held in Davao City.


“The President has appealed for cooperation from all stakeholders, from electric cooperatives, consumers and local government units. We expect the action plan be clearer in a summit of stakeholders in


Mindanao,” Valte said.


For Sen. Edgardo Angara, the power outages in Mindanao could have been prevented had the government decided to invest in renewable energy or RE.


Angara, who chairs the Senate Committee on Science and Technology, blamed the problem on the government’s failure to explore the shift to renewable energy programs which he sees as a long-term solution.


He said that despite the passage of the Renewable Energy Act into law in 2008 which supposedly supports the country’s fledgling RE industry, the government has yet to act on the comprehensive renewable energy framework.


Instead of pushing for emergency powers for President Aquino, Angara said the current administration should explore the use of renewable energy such as biomass, solar and other non-traditional sources of energy to solve the power shortage not only in Mindanao but in the rest of the country.


“Our power supply in Luzon, I think, will be in demand for the next two years. Definitely, Mindanao and Visayas are already experiencing scarcity. That’s why there’s a need to manage that deficit to prevent rolling brownouts that last from six to eight hours,” Angara said in an interview on Radio DZBB.


The government, he said, was ready to roll some $5-billion worth of investments in renewable energy four years ago but was stalled by the Department of Finance’s “limited concern” regarding revenue losses to investors in terms of the rate to be set for the plugging into the national grid.


“If we didn’t take too much time debating…then we could have substantial investments in RE and we wouldn’t have to rely on crude oil which prices are volatile in the world market,” Angara said.


“If we got rid of our short-sightedness and slowness in the bureaucracy there would have been no shortage of electricity,” Angara said.


Angara said he sees no need for Congress to grant President Aquino emergency powers to address the power crisis in Mindanao stating there are sufficient powers in place to address the matter at hand.


He said the government cannot afford to make the same mistake Congress did when it granted President Fidel Ramos emergency powers when the country was also experiencing four to 16 hours of outages before.


(With additional reporting from Hannah L. Torregoza]