Mindanao co-ops to put up own 300-MW plant

Thirty-three electric cooperatives belonging to the Association of Mindanao Rural Electric Cooperatives (Amreco) are planning to develop their own 300-megawatt baseload coal-fired power plant to ensure the stability of supply in Mindanao.

Energy Undersecretary Josefina Patricia I. Asirit told reporters that electric cooperatives had started taking on a more proactive and significant role in providing additional power in Mindanao, whose supply situation had been precarious due to its heavy reliance on the Agus-Pulangi hydropower complexes.

According to Asirit, the Department of Energy (DoE) is continuously monitoring the power supply situation in Mindanao to ensure sufficient supply, especially since the Agus-Pulangi complexes, which provided over half of the electricity requirements of the area, could no longer guarantee constant supply.

The year 2010 saw the vulnerability of Mindanao’s power situation given its reliance on hydropower facilities. The island has been hit by a prolonged drought, which reduced the water levels at the dam and the capacity of the Agus Pulangi complexes to only about 10 percent of its 700-MW capacity. This resulted in brownouts lasting from four to eight hours a day.

Amreco’s plan to build a 300-MW coal plant is hoped to help address the power supply issues faced by Mindanao, especially since the DoE is expecting a power demand growth of 4.56 percent yearly starting 2012, Asirit said.

Asirit added that the DoE would be assisting Amreco in ensuring that the proposed facility would be compliant with environmental regulations.

The DoE is expecting several power projects in Mindanao to start commercial operations within the next five years. These include Mindanao Energy Systems Inc.’s 20-MW bunker fired facility; Conal Holdings Corp.’s 200-MW coal facility in Sarangani, and Energy Development Corp.’s 50-MW Mt. Apo 3.

In 2010, Energy Secretary Jose Rene D. Almendras said he wanted the Mindanao grid to have at least 500 MW in baseload generation capacity from nonhydro sources such as coal, to insulate the island from severe power outages and unstable supply in the near future.

Almendras said the 500 MW of nonhydro baseload generation capacity was needed in Mindanao “since we cannot predict exactly what the water levels will be in Mindanao in the coming years.”

The energy chief earlier admitted that electricity prices in Mindanao would have to increase gradually to reflect the true cost of power and encourage the private sector to infuse investments into the power sector on the island.