ADB plans to integrate Bimp-Eaga power grids
Thursday, March 18, 2010
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A PROPOSED plan to integrate the power grid of the four-member countries of Brunei-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East Asean Growth Area (BIMP-Eaga) is now being mulled by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) amid the looming collapse of the Mindanao power grid.
Mindanao Business Council (MinBC) chair Vicente Lao said in the provinces of Sarawak, there lies a massive hydro power plant with a capacity not fully tapped. Coal is also being mined in the neighboring province of Kalimantan, which is being used to power coal plants in the country.
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Both are located in the island of Borneo, south of Mindanao. Borneo is an island shared by the countries of Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei.
"The proposal a few years back was to tap these power sources, integrating Mindnao into the power grid of the Bimp-Eaga subregion. We will be connected by submarine cables," said Lao adding that the same proposal was shelved due to the low power rates in Mindanao and the absence of a power crisis back then.
The power supply gap in Mindanao continues to hover around 700 megawatts, nearly half of the power supply needed by Mindanao during its peak hours.
At present, private sector groups are in talks with almost every country that can provide generator sets that will augment the power supply gap in Mindanao.
"We literally talk to anyone who can provide us with generator sets, even as far as Europe and Lithuania, Russia," Lao said, adding that generators coming in from Singapore and Korea are already under negotiations.
Early warning
Lao reiterated that the private sector has sounded off the alarm early on regarding the power crisis so that the appropriate government agencies could take action.
"It even came to a point wherein we sounded like broken records, but still no one listened and even branded us as creating a scenario for power rates to increase," Lao said.
For its part, the Department of Energy maintains that its hands are tied in relation to investments on the power sector as the Electric Power Industry Reform Act law prohibits the government from investing in the same. (CPM)
