By Alena Mae S. Flores
Mindanao, which currently suffers from a power shortage, may experience an oversupply of electricity by 2017, or once the big coal-fired power projects with a total capacity of over 800 megawatts are completed, the Energy Department said Tuesday.
Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho Petilla said while there was an ongoing power shortage, there would be a shift in supply by 2017.
“Once the plants come in, they’ll [Mindanao residents] have an oversupply. At the very least, 800 MW by 2017… It will be more than what they need,” Petilla told reporters at the sidelines of the Philippine Economic Briefing in Manila.
Petilla said several power projects were in various construction stage such as the 300-MW coal project of Aboitiz Group in Davao, Alcantara Group’s 200-MW coal project in Sarangani and the 270-MW coal project of FDC Utilities Corp.
Petilla said San Miguel Corp. recently inaugurated a proposed coal project in Mindanao, and planned to build four units, with a capacity of 150 MW each.
“The 800 MW, they [Mindanao] will not fully able to utilize that in the next three to four years,” he said.
Petilla said Mindanao’s annual growth rate could not be easily predicted because demand was curtailed at present due to lack of power supply.
He said among the solutions to the Mindanao power crisis was the implementation of the interim Mindanao electricity market that would be launched within the month.
The Energy Regulatory Commission recently approved the application of Philippine Electricity Market Corp., operator of the country’s wholesale electricity spot market. source
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