Power outages are back in Mindanao

DAVAO CITY—Power utilities in Mindanao are scrambling for measures to fill a gap in the electric supply, including tapping power sources that could jack up rates.

The search for alternative power sources came as the transmission firm National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) on Tuesday said there was a shortfall of at least 111 megawatts in the supply of electricity.

Demand peaked at 1,411 MW but supply reached only 1,300 MW, according to NGCP.

The reason for the shortfall is unclear, but sources in the power industry in Mindanao said a hydropower plant, Pulangui, was not operating in full capacity.

This city’s power utility, Davao Light and Power Co. (DLPC), said supply was precarious because the National Power Corp. (Napocor), which operates Pulangui and other hydropower plants in Mindanao, delivered only 242 MW out of the 285 MW expected from it.

Arturo Milan, DLPC executive vice president and chief operating officer, said DLPC was forced to operate a standby power plant, which ran on diesel and would raise rates, to fill the gap.

“Just to state it in clear terms, the Mindanao grid is actually under curtailment right now,” Milan said.

He said DLPC was checking reports that the actual shortfall was 200 MW because Pulangui produced only 60 MW out of 225 MW expected from it as a result of falling water levels in Pulangui River, from where the hydroplant draws its power.

DLPC, Milan said, was hardest hit because 85 percent of its supply came from Napocor.

He said rotating brownouts of up to five hours were being implemented in Midsayap, North Cotabato province; two-and-a-half hours in Kidapawan City and two hours in Tagum City and other areas in Compostela Valley province.

In Kidapawan City, Cotabato Electric Cooperative has been warning since November of impending power outages.

In Digos City, Godofredo Guya, manager of Davao del Sur Electric Cooperative Inc., said peak demand was at least 42 MW, which supply could not meet.

In San Francisco, Agusan del Sur province, Agusan del Sur Electric Cooperative said it was tapping a power plant that ran on bunker fuel to boost the province’s power supply.

In Cotabato City, a regional lawmaker of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) has recommended that all government offices in ARMM be required to use environment-friendly sources of electricity. Reports from Germelina Lacorte, Williamor Magbanua, Eldie Aguirre, Chris Panganiban and Nash Maulana, Inquirer Mindanao