Written Catherine S. Valente Reporter Published on 26 March 2013
The Philippine government has no immediate solution to Mindanao power crisis after President Benigno Aquino 3rd on Tuesday revealed that everything is in place for a long-term solution to address energy shortage in the region.
In an interview, the President said that he expects electricity supply problem in Mindanao to end in 2015.
“By 2015, we expect the problem to largely go away,” the President said, noting that similar other plants will also start going online after that until 2017.
“It takes between three to four years to set up the power plant. So earliest target date is about 300 megawatts [from] coal-fired power plant by 2015,” he added.
When asked how long Mindanao residents would wait before the remedial measure takes effect, the President said that he wants to make sure that government actions complies with the law.
The President added that his administration doesn’t want shortcuts.
Under Epira, Mr. Aquino said that “Napocor in particular cannot purchase new generating equipment.
“And [the] Epira was set up basically to privatize the electrical power industry, is it not? The government intervenes. It’s as if there’s a school of thought that says government can’t purchase new generating equipment,” he said.
The government, he said, instead is working on a mechanism that will assist power distribution utilities to buy diesel-fed electric generating plants as an immediate stop-gap measure to the current energy crisis.
He noted that power plants that run on diesel fuel are the fastest to build but it could mean higher electricity rates.
“So these diesel power plants are seen as the quickest—as early as six months, maximum of up to one year [the government could set these up in six months to one year],” he said
Meanwhile, the President said that the government response is also intended to make sure that the upcoming elections will not be affected.
“There is an assurance that elections will not be affected.,” he said
“There will be power for all of these precincts so that they can transmit all of the results of the elections,” he added
Many provinces in Mindanao are experiencing rotating blackouts of up to eight hours per day.
The region is mainly dependent on hydroelectric power plants, which generate over half of its electricity requirement during normal weather and reservoir conditions. source
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