Business Mirror Published on Tuesday, 30 October 2012 20:32 Written by Manuel T. Cayon / Mindanao Bureau Chief
DAVAO CITY—Mindanao faces significant energy shortage when the El Niño dry spell heats up the region in the first six months of next year.
The Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) said on Tuesday that Mindanao is currently suffering from a daily average deficit of 300 to 400 megawatts during peak periods. The Mindanao grid is capable of generating 800 MW or thereabouts.
The deficit level was more than double the figure that was announced two weeks earlier. Milfrance Capulong, corporate affairs officer for Mindanao of the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines, said then that Mindanao was reeling from a deficit of 120 MW.
Its doubling arose from full decommissioning for repair of the three turbines of the 210-MW Steag coal plant in Cagayan de Oro City in Misamis Oriental. This capacity would be considered huge for a grid that could only churn out 974 MW combined from government and private facilities.
At peak periods, demand would reach 1,100 MW, Capulong said.
At the current deficit level, some areas of Mindanao have been experiencing at least two-hour brownouts and six-hour ones in others.
Romeo Montenegro, MinDA director for investment promotion and public affairs, said the Steag plant would be restored by the second week of this month. Restoration could lead to recovery of the 200 MW that had been lost.
According to Montenegro, the remaining shortage of as much as 200 MW would continue to hound the region for the rest of the year. This shortage, he said, could develop into a crisis once El Niño reduces water levels across Mindanao by the summer of 2013. The Mindanao grid relies for 53 percent of its capacity on hydroelectric power plants that tap the waters of the Agus River of Lanao del Norte and Lanao del Sur and the Pulangui River of Bukidnon.
The Mindanao Power Monitoring Committee (MPMC) plans to tap again internal-generation capacities of corporations that are using their own generators, and offer them incentives for turning these generators on during peak periods.
The MPMC is a special body created this year to address the festering power shortage in the region.
Montenegro said the combined embedded capacities of these corporations might reach 300 MW, which could help the Mindanao grid disperse this capacity to other areas needing them.
He added that quick rehabilitation of the Pulangui IV hydroelectric power plant and the Iligan diesel-power plant (IDPP) could generate additional capacities. The Pulangui plant, however, was only recently repaired and the IDPP was said to have been hounded by a government audit. source
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