MANILA -- The government is considering four measures to address the country’s power crisis without Congress going into a special session and President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo using her emergency powers.

The options include mounting power generating project, transferring available power barges from Luzon to Mindanao, running embedded generators, and re-scheduling of work or production of activities of big power consumers to low demand hours.

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Newly-appointed Executive Secretary Leandro Mendoza said these measures do not need special session in Congress in order to be executed.

“In two days, there is going to be a decision already. These are measures that can be implemented even without approval of Congress,” he said.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has dropped proposals to call on a special session in Congress to seek approval for additional power generating capacity for the National Power Corporation (Napocor), and instead laid down recommendations that are affordable and doable in short-term period only.

“Among the considerations are the cost of the procurement and timing because by June, we will already have rains and most plants in Mindanao are hydroelectric power plants,” Mendoza said.

The Palace official admitted that Mindanao is facing power deficiency of about 700 megawatts (MW) due to drop in water level in Agus and Pulangi hydroelectric plants.

“Longer brownouts are now being experienced throughout the island region. The situation is expected to worsen as we are still now on the onset of El Niño,” he said.

But he added that a private sector initiative by the Mindanao Business Council and Mindanao Electric Power Alliance, a coalition of power providers and cooperatives, has already expressed willingness to set up power generating project in the province.

Should this option be pursued, Mendoza said the government will likely make available a financing window through the Development Bank of the Philippines and Land Bank of the Philippines for the private sector partners to bring down power costs.

An inter-agency meeting between the government and these private proponents will be held at Malacañang on Thursday.

“The stakeholders of Mindanao, both private and public have expressed full cooperation to address this crisis situation,” he said.

Changing working hours

On the proposal of changing working hours, Mendoza said they are looking at “shifting business hours to 10 p.m. to 4 a.m. when there is no much demand and oversupply of power.”

Press Secretary Crispulo Icban, however, said that giving incentives to private sectors working on off-peak hour should still be deliberated in the Cabinet.

He warned that private companies should comply with the rule or “stop operations.”

Cabinet members tasked to resolve power crisis in Mindanao are Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes, Presidential adviser for Mindanao Jess Dureza, Finance Secretary Margarito Teves, Defense Secretary Norbeto Gonzales, and Justice Secretary Alberto Agra.

Icban, meanwhile, chided those who are saying that power crisis is just artificial. He said they are expecting such comments since it is election season.

“This is a real problem this is not an invented or concocted problem. So the Cabinet discussed that lengthily today (Tuesday) and we will continue to do so tomorrow (Wednesday) and I think two days from now, when they have several options before them, they will come to a decision that is expected to solve the problem specifically in Mindanao. There is no politics involved,” he said.

Manual polls not acceptable

In a related development, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) is meeting power companies in the Mindanao region this weekend to discuss possible plans for the coming May 10 polls.

Comelec Commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal said the move aims to lay out solutions to the power crisis happening in the Mindanao grid, which is suffering from five to 12 hours brownouts daily.

The suggestion of Napocor to hold “manual elections” in Mindanao is not acceptable, the poll official said.

Larrazabal said lack of power is “not reason enough to hold manual elections (there).”

He said the 82,200 precinct count optical scan (PCOS) machines to be deployed during the election day have external batteries that can last up to 16 hours, while canvassing centers will be equipped with generators.

Based on their initial discussions with the distribution and generation firms, Larrazabal said the problems on brownouts could be resolved.

He, however, refused to reveal the actions the poll body might implement in averting power supply problem during the election day itself.

Also, Larrazabal said the Comelec en banc directed its regional directors nationwide to submit precinct maps to the power companies "so that they know which towns need power on election day."

Since last month, Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao grids have been suffering from rotating brownouts due to lack of sufficient supply of power because hydro plants, which comprise 30 percent of the generation mix, have been malfunctioning due to lack of water.

On January, the Comelec has deputized the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Napocor to ensure continued supply of power.

The DOE through Napocor also submitted a contingency plan that would prevent power supply interruptions during the voting, counting, and canvassing for the May 10 elections.

Power in Luzon, Visayas stable

On contrary, Luzon and Visayas grid consumers experienced uninterrupted power service Tuesday.

The National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) said the Luzon grid has enough reserves of around 336 megawatts (MW) after First Gas Power Corporation's Sta. Rita Module 10 went online at 6:12 p.m. Monday and is now contributing 80 MW to the grid. It is expected to generate a total of 255 MW by 2 p.m.

But CE Casecnan Water and Energy Company's Casecnan power plant, which was giving 65 MW Monday, is now down to zero MW due to low water elevation.

Luzon has 7,298 MW available capacity versus peak demand of 6,962 MW.

Similarly, the Visayas grid did not encounter any power interruptions with 57 MW reserves. Available capacity in the region was placed at 1,238 MW as against the load peak of 1,181 MW.

NGCP maintained that the limited available capacities from Napocor’s hydro power plants, most of which have water reservoirs that are drying up due to the El Niño dry spell, are contributing to the power shortage.

In Mindanao, Agus 5 is now running at 15 MW, Agus 6 at 30 MW, Agus 7 at 10 MW, and Pulangi at 30 MW. (Jill Beltran/MSN/Sunnex)