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Wednesday, June 04, 2003
No extra barge for Cebu demand
By Jasmin G. Suma-oy & Rose O. Verzosa
Of Sun.Star Cebu
THE Department of Energy (DOE) wants an action group of 30 people, perhaps under the Regional Development Council (RDC), to be created to push for initiatives to solve the looming power shortage problem in Cebu.
As there is no power barge that can be pulled out and dispatched to Cebu, Energy Assistant Secretary Lasse Holopainen advised consumers to adopt power load shifting and other conversation measures to help stave off a crisis.
Holopainen met with the consumers’ group Konsumo, Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mayor Eduardo Gullas and Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Arturo Radaza last Monday.
He also met with Mayors Thadeo Ouano, Tomas Osmeńa and other Cebu City officials yesterday to brief them on the power situation in the Visayas.
“The first step is to make sure that everyone has the same information so we have same base to work on,” Holopainen told reporters.
He assured Cebuanos and prospective investors in the Visayas the situation has not yet reached crisis proportions.
So far, among the solutions floated in his meetings in Cebu are energy-saving measures such as daylight saving time, swapping bulbs with fluorescent lamps and for commercial and industrial companies to move their loads to non-peak hours.
As this developed, different groups in Cebu sent a petition to the committee on good government and energy to push through with the scheduled House inquiry on the possible bidding irregularities of the Leyte-Cebu Interconnection Upgrading Project.
Five Cebuano representatives also asked the House committee on energy to summon the DOE to step in and maintain “no power shortage, no power rate increase.”
Rep. Raul Del Mar (Cebu City, north) delivered a privilege speech about the looming power crises in Cebu.
Along with Reps. Antonio Cuenco (Cebu City, south), Nerissa Ruiz (Cebu, 6th district), Jose Gullas (Cebu, 1st district) and Joseph Durano (Cebu, 5th district), he said DOE must call the Visayan Electric Company (Veco) and Cebu Private Power Corp. (CPPC) to a meeting.
In this meeting, all the congressional members from the affected area will have to participate to come up with short-term and long-term solutions.
The committee on energy was also directed to hold a briefing on the upgrading of the Cebu-Negros-Panay Grid and the Leyte-Cebu Power Grid interconnection following reports on the delay of their implementation.
These projects could have reduced brownouts to a minimum level if not normalize the power situation in the Visayas.
The CPPC, which is supplying power to Veco, notified that it will suspend operations on June 15 if it cannot get a price increase because of heavy losses.
But even if CPPC’s problem is resolved, Holopainen warned that Cebu will still experience power failure during peak hours by December, unless appropriate solutions are adopted.
Aside from lack of private investors in power generation, the DOE official said the problem could also be attributed to the unforeseen delays in the implementation of projects such as the Leyte-Cebu interconnection.
Holopainen said he is meeting with Cebu’s leaders “to get coordinated.”
He said industries can adopt their own day-light time-saving measures by moving their production activities during off-peak hours.
That way, the power demand becomes fairly scattered during the entire day and discrepancy between power supply and demand in any given hour is reduced.
The grant of tariff incentives to off-peak power usage may also be adopted.
The National Transmission Company and the National Power Corp. have been drafting recommendations on how different sectors could help.
(June 4, 2003 issue)
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