By May 19, the people in Mindanao may get some relief from the long hours of rotating brownouts plaguing the island since the beginning of the year, Energy Secretary Jose Rene D. Almendras said on Wednesday night.
“The good news is that we will shut down from April 17 to May 19 the 255-megawatt (MW) Pulangi facility so that we may be able to produce 100 MW more from the plant—assuming there is rain. But so far, water levels at the dam are good,” Almendras said at a dinner-briefing with Inquirer editors, reporters and columnists at the newspaper’s editorial offices.
Almendras said the Department of Energy was also looking to tap all the 74-MW generated by diesel-fired power plants of certain distribution utilities and industrial firms to help shore up supply on the island.
That, he said, would ease the 170-MW shortage currently being felt in Mindanao.
But this promise quickly came with a caveat. The energy secretary said he could not ensure a “no-brownout scenario” yet because “you have 30,000 to 40,000 pieces of equipment, and anyone of them can break down anytime.
He said the island’s reserves were not enough because of the basic problem, which is lack of base-load generation. Base-load facilities are plants that can provide stable power supply 24/7 like coal-fired, geothermal and to some extent hydropower facilities.
Complex problem
Almendras acknowledged that not even emergency powers for President Benigno Aquino III could come up with an immediate solution for the Mindanao power woes because the power supply situation on the island had become so complex over the past decade.
He said the situation reflected the conflicts and problems rooted in social, political and environmental concerns.
As a result, these concerns have become a disincentive to prospective investors in the power sector, Almendras said.
This partly explains why Mindanao continues to be heavily reliant on hydropower plants, which provide more than half of the island’s electricity requirements.
Currently, Mindanao’s base-load power generation accounted for only 37 percent of its total capacity compared with the 63.94 percent base-load capacity in Luzon and 71.88 percent in the Visayas.
Summit Friday
“This is why we’re having the Mindanao power summit [Friday] because the objective of this summit is for all players to come together and understand the root problems. I will say, yes, we fell short of your expectation in the implementation of the law. I’m not saying we’re blameless,” Almendras said.
“But the point is, we all have to share. The national government, local governments, the private sector and even the consuming groups will all have to do their share. The key is, we must come up with a long-term sustainable solution because if we act hastily again with stop-gap measures, then we sacrifice the long-term [situation] again,” he said.
The energy chief also pointed out that the summit must be able to convince all players that the power woes would not be solved unless there was a concerted effort to address it.
Band-aid solutions
Mindanaoans must also understand that the Aquino administration has no choice but to implement costly “band-aid solutions” that may jack up the island’s electricity prices to ease the power supply crunch, he said.
Almendras said all measures at the moment were “stop gap” because the base-load capacity from new coal-fired facilities, which will be able to ensure adequate supply in Mindanao, were expected to start operating only by the end of 2014 or 2015.
Pay true cost
“Mindanao has to accept the fact that it has to start paying for [the true cost of electricity]. We have since realized that Mindanao is a special area. But to put things in perspective, even an additional 54-centavo per kilowatt-hour (kWh) increase in charges when they buy diesel will give them power prices way below those in Luzon and the Visayas,” he said.
Over the next few months and until 2014, the energy department will implement a number of stop-gap measures to ensure adequate supply, but these can jack up prices by 55 centavos to as much as 80 centavos per kWh.
Barges
The department is now working on having the 100-MW Iligan plant to start operating and on transferring two barges, which have a combined capacity of 120 MW, to Mindanao from Luzon
Almendras said the DOE was also urging the state-run Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. to fast-track the auction of four power barges (PB 101-104) to enable winning bidders to transfer three of these to Mindanao from Iloilo.
“We want to move the additional power generation and do it in the next two to three months so these facilities will reach Mindanao before the summer of 2013. Summers are really a problem in Mindanao,” he said.
“So we’re hoping that will take care of 2013 and 2014,” he added.
Real solution
But the real solution, according to Almendras, will come from having nonhydropower facilities in Mindanao. When these power plants are up and running, the government will be able to repair and rehabilitate the Agus and Pulangi hydropower complexes to enable them to generate power at their combined installed capacity of 982 MW from the current generation of 646 MW, he said.
“We need nonhydro facilities as base load because we don’t want to put our eggs in one basket. The idea is to have as many options for energy sources. That would be most ideal,” the energy secretary said.
Woo investors
For now, the administration continues to woo investors to put up power facilities in Mindanao, alongside efforts to enable electric cooperatives enter into contracts with the needed capacities for their short-, medium- and long-term requirements.
There is also a renewed push to connect all the islands via the Leyte-Mindanao Interconnection Project (LMIP), now estimated to cost P24 billion, up from the previous estimate of P18 billion. At present, only Luzon and the Visayas are interconnected, which allows the transfer of electricity between the two island groups.
Had the project been pursued as planned in 2004, the line would have saved Mindanao from rotating brownouts because Luzon has supply reserves of as much as 1,700 MW, while the Visayas enjoys a surplus of 400 MW.
A feasibility study for the LMIP project though has yet to be conducted.
“We have since been aware of the problems since we came in 2010 and we’re trying our very best to solve it. We have a plan, but unfortunately, the plan was not executed as planned,” Almendras said.
“There is, however, enough power only if we all cooperate and agree to do things a certain way although unfortunately, it will result in higher electricity prices for some,” he said.