Electricity

Anger over the power price issue now erupting in Mindanao is one that this country has not seen since the initial outbursts against the power purchase agreements in Metro Manila almost a decade ago.

THE chairman of the House committee on energy on Sunday defended Energy Secretary Jose Rene Almendras from calls for his resignation over the growing power crisis in Mindanao. The power shortage in Mindanao is a complex problem that requires technical solutions that requires time to implement,” said Batanes Rep. Henedina Abad.

MANILA, Philippines – The government moved yesterday to avert massive power outages in Metro Manila and ease the ongoing blackouts in Mindanao, with President Aquino presiding over a meeting at Malacañang on the energy situation.

ZAMBOANGA CITY — The labor sector in this city is starting to feel the pinch of incessant and rotating blackouts, according to the Philippine Integrated Industries Labor Union or PHILU.

SEVERAL lawmakers from Mindanao are demanding immediate government action on the worsening power crisis on the island, saying the power crisis there was artificial and deliberately caused. Energy officials were “in cahoots with unscrupulous businessmen who are out to make huge profits from the recurrent [blackouts], Agham party list Rep. Angelo Palmones said.

Lawmakers from Mindanao have castigated Energy Secretary Jose Rene Almendras for failing to address the island’s acute power shortage despite his commitment to undertake projects to boost the capacity of hydropower plants there.

The Energy Department will issue a directive next week that will free up 300 megawatts of power supply to plug the deficit in Mindanao but consumers will have to brace for higher power rates, a government official said Wednesday.

DAVAO CITY ,Philippines  – Local officials in Mindanao have accused the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) of creating an artificial power shortage by scheduling daily blackouts of up to 12 hours.

The Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) is seeking a congressional inquiry on the rotating daily power outages in the island, which “should not be that (bad) because there is an untapped 65 megawatts from state-owned hydropower plants,” an official said.

Daily power outages in southern Philippines now last much longer than the two to four hours that were earlier reported. Lualhati Antonino, the chairman of the Mindanao Development Authority, on Monday said that the hardest hit in Mindanao by the rotating brownouts of six to eight hours every day is SOCCSKSARGEN (South Cotabato, Cotabato City,…

The recurring power shortage problem in Mindanao can be blamed on Min-danao politicians. Their focus on the short term self interest had been at the root of the recurring crisis for years. I remember from my stint in the energy ministry 30 years ago that they have opposed plans to interconnect Mindanao with Luzon and…

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.

MINDANAO could suffer four- to eight-hour rolling blackouts in summer as the temperatures rise and demand for electricity increases, the Energy Department warned on Thursday.

FEF REACTION: Reacting to our Postscript last Sunday on the Aquino administration’s renewable energy program, Calixto V. Chikiamco, president of the Foundation for Economic Freedom, published in the FEF website a purported letter to our editor saying:

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine Economic Zone Authority (PEZA) has received P1.166-billion funding support for the ecozone rate program (ERP). PEZA director general Lilia B. De Lima said the Office of the President approved the funding support of P1.166 billion and has directed the Department of Budget and Management to source out and adopt a…

MINDANAO is now on “red alert” due to a power shortage, while Luzon will need more power generators in the next three years as a result of rising demand and the increasing population, Energy Secretary Jose Almendras said Tuesday.

MANILA, Philippines – The Aquino administration has worked itself up towards a favorable rating in terms of addressing energy-related concerns and issues in 2011, as challenges remain at its midst in 2012 and the years to come.

The Department of Energy (DOE) will ramp up rural electrification projects in line with government plans to spur investments across the country.

There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

THE government will no longer provide discounted electricity to economic zones under the franchise area of Manila Electric Co. by December.

DESPITE opposition from various groups and local communities, the development of cleaner coal power plants may be the answer to a looming power crisis in the next four years.

In 2009, amid looming water and power shortages, alarm bells rang over the threat of El Nio to Mindanaos hydro-electric plants. At that time, state holding firm Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (Psalm) sold off the states Power Barges (PB) 117 and 118 to the Aboitiz group for $30 million.

Manila Electric Co., the Philippine Economic Zone Authority and the Semiconductor and Electronics Industries in the Philippines Inc. have asked National Power Corp. to extend a power rate discount until December next year.

[This article is being reprinted here courtesy of the National Wildlife Federation, USA. It has the title “Mercury Pollution from Coalfired Power Plants: A Dangerous Threat to People and Wildlife” in the NWF website www.nwf.org/cleanairact.]

MORE and more neutral voices that are not those of anti-business leftists or those of environmental advocacy militants have joined the call for the government to reverse the policy on coal-fired power plants. It will not be an easy about-face to maneuver.

MANILA, Philippines – The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) has directed all distribution utilities (DUs) to submit reports on discounts given to senior citizens.

QUEZON CITY  –  The Trade Union Congress Party (TUCP) through its Representative Raymond Democrito C. Mendoza today called on the Court of Appeals (CA) to reverse its ruling affirming the validity of the P14 billion settlement between the National Power Corp. (NPC) and Meralco in 2003.

MANILA, Philippines – State-run Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) has promised to withdraw its four petitions for increases in electricity rates totaling P4.88 per kilowatt-hour.

THE government overpaid 19 independent power producers (IPPs) by $10 billion in the last 10 years, a House leader said on Tuesday.

MANILA, Philippines – Electricity producers in the country have been overpaid by as much as $10 billion (P440 billion) over the past 10 years, Parañaque Rep. Roilo Golez revealed yesterday.