Coloma: Rotating brownouts to continue in Mindanao

Manila Bulletin
by Madel Sabater - Namit 
March 7, 2014 

Manila, Philippines — Malacañang said yesterday that two to three hours of rotating brownouts will continue in Mindanao due to power supply shortfall in the region. 
It, however, assured that all stakeholders in the power industry are working together to augment the power situation in the south. Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said that two to three hours of rotating brownouts will continue to be experienced in Mindanao, except for Maguindanao, which will continue to have more than 10 hours of brownouts daily, due to the 158 megawatt shortfall in the area. 
He said that the current supply in Mindanao is 1,064 megawatts compared to the peak demand estimated at 1,222 megawatts. Coloma, however, said that the government is “committed to provide steady and stable power supply for our citizens.” 
In a bid to solve the problem, Coloma said the Department of Energy and the power industry are implementing the following measures: (1) the use of embedded generators by distribution utilities to augment power supply; (2) adoption of the interruptible load program or the voluntary use of generator sets by consumers for which they will receive compensation based on Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) approved rates; (3) continuing repair and rehabilitation of the 210-megawatt STEAG State Power, Inc. (SPI)’s coal-fired power plant in the Phividec estate in Misamis Oriental that is estimated to take from two to three months; and (4) continue repairing and rehabilitating existing hydroelectric power plants. Coloma also said the government is closely monitoring ongoing projects that will increase power supply in Mindanao by up to 900 megawatts: the 200-megawatt coal-fired plant of the Alsons’ group and the 300-megawatt Aboitiz-owned coal-fired plant, which will both come online by 2015. 
He said another 400 megawatt coal fired power plant owned by Filinvest will become operational in 2016. 
 “So [there will be] an additional of 900 (MW) to address the current, which is around 1,200 (MW),” Coloma said. source