THE COUNTRY?S POWER SUPPLY is expected to become critical next year as the committed power generation projects are seen to produce only 1,020 megawatts (MW), falling short of the required additional capacity of 4,100 MW.

But the Department of Energy has allayed the public?s fears of possible power shortages during the election period, saying it has already requested Congress for an additional P3-billion budget for a power contingency plan.

?We have to ensure that there is adequate and secure supply of power that would be available for the conduct of a political exercise as important as a national election,? said Energy Secretary Angelo T. Reyes.

Reyes told reporters that the Visayas, which has been experiencing rotating brownouts, entered the so-called critical period last year, while Mindanao?s power supply has become critical this year.

Luzon is seen to enter the critical phase by 2010, when it is expected to experience rotating brownouts as well.

?I mentioned to the Lower House that we have projects in the pipeline to provide this power [requirement], some committed and some indicative. And at the same time, we have a contingency that was prepared by National Power Corp.,? Reyes said.

?We?re not entirely hopeless?we?re doing something about it and we?ll do something about it to ensure power supply problem is not in the way of successfully holding a 2010 election,? Reyes said.

?We have been saying this for a long time already that we need investments in the power generation sector and we have done our best. Should the need for additional power arise, then the President with the concurrence of Congress may declare a situation that would [allow] the government to come in and set up a security power generating facility,? Reyes noted.

The full details of Napocor?s contingency plan has yet to be presented to the DOE.

Reyes said the P3-billion budget could be used to rehabilitate or upgrade existing power plants or put up so-called ?security power generating facilities.? The funds would also be used to improve transmission lines to ensure delivery of electricity.

?The contingency plan is a plan to address the situation if the indicative projects do not come in and also to ensure redundancy in the supply of power. As you know, in the power business, it has to be a failsafe sector as we cannot afford brownouts, so there is a need for redundancies,? Reyes said.

?And we stated [to Congress] the problem clearly that we might be experiencing power supply problems [next year], so it has to be addressed. So we [told them the] contingency plan and laid out the situation as we see it,? he added.

According to data from the DOE, the Luzon grid would need an additional capacity of 3,000 MW starting 2010; Visayas, 500 MW starting 2008, and Mindanao, 600 MW starting this year. But committed power projects are expected to add only 600 MW to the Luzon grid; 320 MW to the Visayas, and 100 MW to Mindanao.