Bacolod City — Negros Occidental should find alternative sources of power before it faces a 100-megawatt shortage by 2015, Global Business Power Corp. president Art Aguilar said.
Aguilar said the figures would show that in 2015, Negros Occidental would have the greatest deficit in power among the island markets at 93MW to 100MW.
He cited the need for reliable and cost-effective power produced in Negros to bring in the investments.
Negros could potentially produce approximately 310 megawatts of renewable energy using biomass and mini hydro power, Aguilar said when he spoke before the members of Metro Bacolod Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Bacolod City Tuesday night.
He urged the sugar mills in Negros, which have engaged in biomass co-generation for about a hundred years now for their own consumption, to go into commercial production of biomass energy.
If existing sugar mills retrofit high pressure boilers, Negros mills could double the amount of electricity they produce for the same amount of bagasse, Aguilar said.
“Commercial technology now exists to enable present sugar mills in Negros to export approximately 200MW on the same bagasse supply. If a cost effective way is found to collect dry cane leaves for biomass, this power generation could even be higher,” he said.
Aguilar also pointed out that Negros has at least seven major river systems that could yield from 50 MW to 80 MW using cascading run-of-the-river mini-hydro technology.
Assuming a Feed-in-Tariff of P6-7 per kwh, the electricity from mini-hydro and biomass could compete with coal-fired power plants, he said. Aguilar also cited the potential for wind power in Negros Occidental.
There are areas like San Carlos City that could yield at least 20MW-30MW of wind energy, he added.
However, Aguilar said the GBPC have no immediate plans to build a coal-fired power plant in the province.
“For now, we (GBPC) have no plans of building a coal-fired power plant in Negros. The prerequisite conditions are quite formidable,” said Aguilar.
For the GBPC to build a coal-fired power facility, several requirements have to be met, such as a port with a 12-meter to 15-meter depth to bring in large vessels to deliver cheaper coal, a freshwater source and a market for its power, he said. However, these conditions were not present in Negros, Aguilar said. INQUIRER