Electricity

Former President Joseph Estrada, the Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino (PMP) standard bearer, yesterday expressed sheer frustration over the current power crisis the country is being hit with, what with daily two-hour brownouts being experienced in Metro Manila and, worse, with longer brownouts in Mindanao and the Visayas.

HOUSEHOLDS and businesses in Metro Manila and Luzon are likely to continue suffering blackouts for the next two weeks and must pay more for the power they consume.

MANILA, Philippines – Malls and industries in Mindanao may have to temporarily shut down or at least slow down operations so that enough power could be harnessed and saved to ensure uninterrupted electricity supply during the election period.

MANILA, Philippines – Eight rural electric power cooperatives in the Visayas have called on the national government to honor its standing 75-25 agreement in sharing power with its energy-generating facility, if only to end daily two-hour blackouts in the region.

MANILA, Philippines – The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) has issued a resolution setting the 2010 installed generating capacity and market share limitations in the Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao grids and the national grid to level up the playing field in the power industry. 

MANILA, Philippines – The Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) will push through with the privatization of the Agus and Pulangui hydroelectric power plants.

The Manila Electric Co. and other power distribution utilities are the usual whipping boys whenever there is a spike in our electric bills.

Businessmen in Mindanao believe that shifting to nighttime operations to save on electricity may not be feasible.

MANILA, Philippines – With the help of the National Electrification Administration (NEA), more electric cooperatives (ECs) made marked improvements in more electric cooperatives on their financial and technical performance last year.

MANILA, Philippines – Power barges PB 117 and PB 118 have been in full operation from the very first day that AboitizPower Corp. assumed their full ownership this year and have been used to help ease the electricity shortfall in Mindanao.

BAGUIO CITY—Drought equals brownouts equals bad economy equals migration.

MALACAÑANG on Tuesday ordered the Department of Energy to review the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001 (EPIRA) in a bid to curb the looming power crisis in the country.

MANILA, Philippines – With barely two months left before election time, the government still has not come up with concrete plans to solve the Mindanao power problem.

MANILA, Philippines – Mindanao-based businessmen are complaining that their electricity bill has gone up despite the five to six hours brownout a day.

MANILA, Philippines – The government is now looking at fast tracking the 2010 investments priorities plan (IPP) in order to mitigate the power crisis in Mindanao by providing incentives to the importation of generators, the Board of Investments (BOI) said.

IF THE Philippine government took to heart the lessons learned from the past, these power shortages would not have happened. While the worsening power supply situation had been attributed to the breakdown of several facilities, scheduled maintenance shutdowns and the El Niño weather disturbance, Francisco L. Viray believes that these outages are also rooted on…

POWER industry players are taking steps to augment the electricity supply in Mindanao. A German-backed consortium operating a coal-fired power plant on the island is looking at expanding its capacity amid the region’s power crisis.

Agency urges enactment of energy conservation law MANILA, Philippines–The Energy Regulatory Commission has agreed to implement a so-called interruptible load program as a stop-gap measure to alleviate the current power crisis in Visayas and Mindanao.

PRIVATE power distributors will lease diesel-powered generators to produce 200 megawatts of electricity a day in Mindanao to add to the grid, which has been producing less power than needed as a result of a drought, an official said Monday.

With Angat dam nearing its critical level, the state-run Metropolitan Waterworks Sewerage System (MWSS) has warned of a “double whammy” crisis in Metro Manila when the dam’s power component is privatized in April.

What should electricity consumers believe of the brownouts, yellow and red alerts and invocation of emergency powers supposedly to address the power crisis?

Saying that emergency powers are not needed, Deputy House Speaker and Camarines Sur Rep. Arnulfo Fuentebella said yesterday the creeping power outages threatening the country, especially Mindanao, could have been avoided had the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Epira) of 2001 been faithfully implemented.

CAGAYAN DE ORO, Philippines/11 March 2010 by Mike Baños—The largest workers’ party in the country, Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (TUCP),  has joined the bandwagon calling on all Mindanaoans to vigorously oppose the privatization of the Agus-Pulangi Hydroelectric Complex.

THE government will encourage companies in Mindanao, where power outages are happening daily, to shift their working hours at night when demand for electricity is lower, Executive Secretary Leandro Mendoza said Tuesday.

PLDT not only stands for the country’s biggest phone company, said Ariel Ayala of Radio Veritas on Saturday.

Pass-through charges to increase by P200-P400 Already saddled with erratic power supply, customers of Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) would also have to bear a hefty spike in their electric bill because of a surge in the utility’s power cost.

MANILA, Philippines – EmPower Consumers Alliance has raised doubts on government‘s pronouncements of a power supply crisis in Mindanao, saying it could be a play to force the use of nuclear energy and raise power rates.

Two opposition lawmakers—Reps. Rufus Rodriguez of Cagayan de Oro and Rodolfo Plaza of Agusan del Sur—joined 120 exporters in expressing support for President Arroyo’s declaration of a power crisis in Mindanao and sought ways to end the daily outages up to 12 hours in some parts.

The party-list group Trade Union Congress Party (TUCP) is strongly opposing the proposed sale of the six Agus-Pulangi hydro power plants in Mindanao to the private sector.

MANILA, Philippines – The country is in danger of losing investments as the business community expressed grave concern on the worsening power crisis in the country.