Palace clueless in solving Mindanao power outages

Businessmen are alarmed over daily two to four hour power outages in the Visayas and Mindanao and yet Malacañang has offered no immediate solution to the problem.

Palace deputy spokesman Abigail Valte on Sunday said during a radio interview that Energy Secretary Rene Almendras has discussed the situation with electric cooperatives and distribution utility firms “but solutions have not been agreed upon.”

She added that Almendras would also talk with Mindanao lawmakers in two or three weeks and discuss proposed solutions.

Valte said that only Almendras can tell how long the brownouts in the Visayas and Mindanao will last.

Former Sen. Juan Miguel Zubiri last week warned of “catastrophic brownouts” in Mindanao within five weeks, unless the government moves fast to fix the island’s massive power supply deficit.

In a letter to Almendras, Zubiri expressed alarm over the current two-to four-hour daily brownouts in many parts of Mindanao, which he said “could worsen into power outages of up to eight hours by April, on account of increased demand associated with the summer season.”

To effectively cure Mindanao’s power supply shortage, he suggested the following remedies: the temporary deployment of additional power barges to reinforce supply in affected areas in Mindanao; the use of the renewable energy trust fund to grant incentives to entities prepared to install and deliver new biomass, solar, wind, hydro, geothermal and/or ocean power supplies, exclusively for Mindanao, in six to 18 months; and the energy sector’s retention in the Investment Priorities Plan of the Board of Investments, in order to attract fresh capital needed to quickly grow Mindanao’s power supply.

In his letter to Almendras, Zubiri said that he was driven to offer his proposals because “the people of Mindanao find it increasingly burdensome to carry out our daily household and business activities, let alone grow our employment-generating industries, in light of the highly disruptive power outages.”

The former senator is a native of Bukidnon province in Mindanao.

A report by the National Grid Corp. showed that as of February 24, Mindanao had a deficit of 67 megawatts, based on available generating capacity of 1,159MWs versus system peak demand of 1,226MWs.

But “references to menacing brownouts of up eight hours daily by April imply a real supply deficit of roughly 21.8 percent, or 268MWs, without counting the 25-percent allowance required for Mindanao to enjoy gross power reserves that match those of Luzon and the Visayas,” Zubiri said.

Luzon has gross power reserves of 22.3 percent, or 1,456MWs, with available capacity of 7,991MWs versus system peak demand of 6,535MWs.

The Visayas has gross power reserves of 27.8 percent, or 376MWs, with available capacity of 1,727MWs versus system peak demand of 1,351MWs.

“The government may have to willfully encourage entities seeking to avail of Renewable Energy Law incentives to go to Mindanao, where there is a clear and urgent lack of reliable generating capacity, instead of installing their facilities in Luzon or the Visayas, which both have ample power supplies,” Zubiri said.

Zubiri was once chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Natural Resources, and author of the Renewable Energy Law of 2008.

Under the law, an initial P2 billion was provided to “support the development and operation of new renewable resources to improve their competitiveness in the market.”

Money out of the fund may be used as grants, loans, equity investments, credit guarantees, insurance, counterpart fund or such other financial arrangements.

The fund is being supported by emission fees from all generating facilities under the Clean Air Act; mandatory contributions from the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office, Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. and Philippine National Oil Co.; and royalties from the exploitation of indigenous non-renewable energy sources, such as natural gas. –JAIME R. PILAPIL REPORTER, Manila Times