Aboitiz hopes to ease power shortfall with new facilities

Aboitiz Power Corp. is prepared to help address the looming power shortfall in Mindanao by putting up a 300-megawatt (MW) clean coal-fired power plant and seven new hydropower facilities that can generate a combined 68 MW.

“Government and independent think tank project that the power shortage by year 2014 will be 484 MW. That means there is a need to build more power plants in the next few years. [The shortage] is enough to cut power entirely to the cities of Davao, GenSan, Butuan, CDO and Zamboanga,” said Bobby Orig, first vice president for Mindanao affairs at APC.

Orig added that, according to government and private sector projections, power in Mindanao will fall short of demand by 270 MW next year.

According to Orig, the company’s proposed facilities, particularly its planned P25-billion coal power plant, will not only secure power supply but will also help reduce Mindanao’s overdependence on the Agus-Pulangi hydropower complex.

“Mindanao is very dependent on hydroelectric power. Some 52 percent of Mindanao’s total power supply comes from the Agus-Pulangi hydroelectric complex in Lanao-Bukidnon. During long droughts or low rainfall, production of these facilities are affected, and Mindanao is plunged into rotating blackouts,” Orig explained.

“Mindanao’s economic and social development will be stalled if this situation is not improved. Families, businesses and industries in the region need additional sources of power that are reliable, affordable, and more importantly, not weather dependent.”

Mindanao thus needs a variety of energy sources in order to minimize the impact of the power shortage and this will involves creating a right mix of energy sources in the region, Orig said.

“The right mix of energy sources ensure that Mindanao will continue to reap its natural resources as a source for power while utilizing non-renewable sources to secure its continued growth,” he explained.

Orig admitted that APC’s coal-fired power plant to be built in Davao would still not be enough to meet the 484-MW shortage projected in Mindanao by 2014. As such, there is a need to build more power plants in the next few years.  Amy R. Remo