ZAMBOANGA CITY (Mindanao Examiner / Mar. 12, 2013) – Zamboanga, a highly urbanized city and one of the largest in the Philippines, is suffering from an acute power shortage due to lack of electricity supply, and alternative solutions to the recurring problem.
The long hours of blackout are affecting not only many business establishments, but also hundreds of thousands of households and there is no tangible solution in sight, not until 2016 when the 100-megawatt coal-fired power plant of the Alsons Power Holdings begins operations in the village of Talisayan.
But villagers are strongly opposed to the operation of the coal-fired power plant due to the pollutions and its effects to the human health and environment. A 10-megawatt solar power facility is also being built in Zamboanga to augment the 90-megawatt electricity requirements of the city.
“There is a shortage of electricity and we are dependent on what is being allocated to us by the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines. Right now, we are only getting about 35 megawatts and the city’s power consumption is about 85 megawatts or more,” said Vic Liozo, a board member of the Zamboanga City Electric Cooperative.
Zamboanga, dubbed as Asia’s Latin City because of its unique Hispanic language, has signed a contract with the Aboitiz’s Therma Marine Incorporated for an additional 18 megawatts of electricity, but despite this the city still suffers from daily power outages – from six hours to as much as ten hours – and worse, the local electric cooperative cannot even strictly follow its own schedule of rotational blackout.
“This is a pestering problem and we have been suffering from blackout for such a long time already. Our air conditioner set broke down due to fluctuating electric current and power outages. I am blaming the local cooperative, the NGCP and the government for not doing good enough to address this problem,” one trader, Archie Perez, said.
The NGCP blames the low water level and routine maintenance in hydro-power plants in Mindanao as the culprit for the lack of power supply. And with this problem, big power producers take advantage of the situation and offer alternative, but expensive solutions – diesel-fed power barges and dirty coal-fired power plants – to provide more electricity supply.
General Santos City is also suffering from four hours of blackout every day, and also six to eight hours in Pagadian City in Zamboanga del Sur province, and also in Sulu and Tawi-Tawi provinces. Basilan province is dependent on power barges for electricity supply.
Pedro Rufo Soliven, president of the Zamboanga Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said Mindanao is in a desperate power crisis situation, and called of President Benigno Aquino to invoke Section 71 of the EPIRA law.
EPIRA refers to the Electric Power Industry Reform Act.
Soliven said the provision on Section 71 gives the President the power – upon the determination of an imminent shortage of supply of electricity and Congress may authorize through a joint resolution – the establishment of additional generating capacity under such terms and conditions as it may approve.
“We, Mindanaoans deserve extra ordinary solution and attention, and Section 71 provides that power to the President to solve the power crisis, by invoking Section 71, red tape can be cut and shorten the lengthy procedure in starting a new power project which normally takes around 2 years to process,” he said.
Mindanao’s urbanization and industrialization is rapidly growing and yet the power outlook of the southern region is bleak due to a very low power reserve mainly because of lack of base load power generating plants.
Soliven, who also sits as chairman of the Task Force ILP (Interruptible Load Program), reiterated his appeal to the Zamboanga City Electric Cooperative to hasten the implementation of the ILP which can mitigate power outages by at least 3 hours which is equivalent to about 8 megawatts that the local utility can generate and distribute this to electric consumers.
He said 15 industrial and commercial establishments have enrolled to the ILP as part of their corporate social responsibility. Soliven also suggested that Zamboanga City Electric Cooperative to seriously study the purchase or lease of modular generator sets to help augment the much needed power supply.
Mindanao was hit by repeated power crises in the past and nothing has been done by the government except to promote the use of coal-fired power plants. But this too, comes with a price and that translates to huge electric bills and environmental pollutions. (Mindanao Examiner)
20