Saturday, July 21, 2007 W. Visayas faces power shortage by 2011 By Gil Alfredo B. Severino
POWER consumers in Western Visayas both in Panay and Negros islands should brace themselves now for a possible power shortage by 2011.
Thus warned by Mario Marasigan, director of the Department of Energy (DOE) Energy Utilization Management Bureau who was here in Bacolod City on Friday for a hearing-conference-workshop.
Marasigan explained, "A power shortage is a consequence of growth of which power supply coming from natural sources and independent power suppliers are unable to cope."
Marasigan however clarified that the situation in 2011 is not a power crisis but only a power shortage.
"Such is similar to what happened in the 90s during the Ramos administration when electric consumers always suffered power from outages for days," he said.
Marasigan said DOE is presently conducting this conference in Negros both to gather inputs on various stakeholders and develop coping mechanisms in line with the Philippine Energy Plan (PEP) 2005-2014.
"PEP's target is to attain 60 percent energy self- sufficiency level by 2010 and beyond. Our presence here is also to lay out development challenges that need to be hurdled by every energy sub-sector, which is the Central Negros Electric Cooperative (Ceneco) in the case of Bacolod," Marasigan added.
In a related development, Ceneco President Roberto Montelibano, in an interview, said that almost all electric cooperatives in Negros had already contracted the Korean Electric Power Corp. (Kepco-Salcon) to upgrade and cope with the projected shortages.
"Except for the Victorias-Manapla Rural Electric Service Cooperative (Vresco), all cooperatives had already contracted with Kepco-Salcon. Ceneco made a purchase-contract of up to 40 megawatts and still inviting other sellers to negotiate with us. First Farmers Milling offered 10 megawatts making our supply to 50 megawatts as base load," Montelibano said.
Montelibano stressed that he is comfortable now with this supply as base load.
Meanwhile, Marasigan said the public must not perceived that PEP has not started, adding, "The Philippine National Oil Corporation (PNOC) Geothermal Plant recently inaugurated is already part of the program."
"Our work in Luzon has already been accomplished, and, at least, the major portion of it is already part of the program also. No, we are in Western Visayas and next will be Mindanao," he said.
He added that the search for alternative power sources is on.
Among them is ethanol and other alternative energy sources as provided under the Biofuels Act, saying, "The Biofuels Act itself is part of the PEP."
Also, Marasigan said, non-traditional sources such as the wind, solar and hydroelectricity are also part and parcel of PEP.
"San Carlos City has great potentials for this. Your irrigation highway will generate hydroelectricity. I have seen barangays here in Negros that already powered by the sun. Iloilo, by the way, is preparing for the biomass factory." Marasigan added.
