Blackouts in Zamboanga City could rise to 6 hrs/day: co-op

An electric cooperative in Mindanao  warned that the brownouts in Zamboanga City could worsen to up to six hours a day should consumers continue to oppose its plan to buy more expensive electricity from one of the diesel-fired power barges owned by the Aboitiz-led Therma Marine Inc.

Elbert Atilano, vice president of the Zamboanga City Electric Cooperative (Zamcelco), said the current power supply shortage in Mindanao has forced the firm to agree to a supply agreement with Therma Marine. Under this agreement, the Aboitiz firm would deliver 18 megawatts of electricity to Zamcelco to resolve the continuous blackouts in the city.

“We need to buy at least 18 MW of electricity from Therma Marine to mitigate the lack of electricity Zamcelco is experiencing at present. If not because of some people who were opposed to the purchase, the electric consumers would not have been suffering from brownouts now,” Atilano said.

Zamcelco said it would ask the ERC for a provisionary permit for the supply agreement, which would mean higher electricity bills for Zamboanga residents who, along with other Mindanao urban residents, have been experiencing daily four-hour brownouts since the start of summer.

Atilano explained that Zamcelco is only getting between 54 MW to 64 MW of power from the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines’ Mindanao grid network, way below its requirements.

“This will now depend on the consumers if they will still oppose, then Zamcelco will have no way of producing electricity to augment the power lack it is now experiencing. Until we resolve the issue fast, the city will experience four to six hours brownouts daily,” he stressed.—Amy Remo