ZAMSURECO –I Clarifies on Power Supply Crisis
According to one of the cooperative member consumer of ZAMSURECO – I, as early as year 2010, power industry experts made a prediction with regards to the looming power supply deficiency problem in Mindanao. Based on their forecast, the supply deficit will reach high as 40mw (mega watts) that is roughly equal to the power requirements of the five major cities in Mindanao.
They forewarned that if the problem will not be addressed, the entire island of Mindanao will experience widespread blackout on a daily basis. Fast forward in 2012, most Electric Cooperatives (ECs) in Mindanao were confronted with common predicament – the power supply crisis. The National Power Corporation which supplies bulk of the power requirements in Mindanao declared that they could no longer provide the requirements of all the ECs particularly on those with expiring supply contracts with them. The said government controlled power producer further stated that they can no longer enter into a long term power supply contract with the power customers due to the reduced capabilities (and impending privatization) of its existing operational power plants particularly Agus and Pulangi Hydropower Plants located in Iligan City and Maramag , Bukidnon, respectively.
Consequently, the ECs are force to implement manual load curtailment on a daily basis from 8:00 am to 11:00 am following load curtailment advisory imposed by the NGCP, the operator. Daily power supply interruptions are experienced in almost all areas in Mindanao with some areas experiencing more than 6 hours blackouts daily. Consumer and business establishments with some areas experiencing disappointment since, according to them, the rotational power supply interruptions had tremendously affected their operations. It is worthy to mention that most businesses at present are heavily reliant to availability of power supply. As reported by certain daily news paper, losses incurred by power interruptions are estimated to reach billions of pesos.
The power industry stakeholders in Mindanao are already calling the attention of the National Government to intervene already and introduced immediate solutions to avert the crippling power supply crisis. Currently, there is no clear and concrete solution yet to the power crisis in Mindanao. To make matters worse, there are no significant capacity additions in between 2013 to 2015. On the brighter side several power plant projects are either planned or under construction but earliest possible time table for the plants to be operational will be in year 2016. With this, the electric cooperatives have to face the challenge on how to survive this power crisis from 2013 to 2015. ( Adapted from Advocate Publication)