Mindanao faces power shortage in 2012

Residents affected by the devastating flash flood and using an improvised torch prepare to sleep at their temporary shelter along a road at a village in Cagayan de Oro City, Mindanao, on December 23, 2011. The number of people missing after devastating Philippines floods soared to more than 1,000 December 23. The state-run Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. has been urged to rush the sale of government-owned diesel-fired power barges as a measure to avert a power supply shortfall in Mindanao this year. AFP/TED ALJIBE

Energy Secretary Jose Rene D. Almendras has urged the state-run Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) to rush the sale of government-owned diesel-fired power barges as these might be necessary to avert a power supply shortfall in Mindanao this year.

Almendras said that while the power supply situation in Luzon and Visayas was expected to be stable this year, Mindanao might suffer supply shortages of about 100 megawatts to meet peak demand alone.

More capacity is needed to have in place the ideal power reserve levels that could avert rotating brownouts in Mindanao in case any of the facilities on the island bogs down, he said.

Almendras said the Department of Energy was asking PSALM to rush the sale of the power barges, specifically PB 101, 102, 103 and 104, so that these could be repaired and moved to Mindanao.

“We are [also] facilitating the transfer of privately owned power barges to be moved to Mindanao,” Almendras said.

PSALM earlier announced that it was targeting to hold the bidding for the sale of PB 101, 102, 103 and 104 by March this year. Once sold, the winning bidder is mandated under the terms of contract not only to repair the diesel-fired barges but to also move and station these facilities in Mindanao for at least three years.

Commissioned in 1981, PB 101 and PB 102 are moored in Barrio Obrero, Iloilo City, while PB 103 and 104, which were commissioned in 1985, are in Botongon, Estancia, Iloilo, and at the Holcim Compound, Ilang, Davao City, respectively.

Since they began operations, these barges have been moved to various regions needing power support.

However, the bidding for the four power barges could be postponed because of a pending house resolution filed by Representative Rufus Rodriguez.

Through the bill, the legislator is urging PSALM “not to bid out the remaining four power barges and instead make them available to provide power in Mindanao.”

The lawmaker earlier sought a congressional probe on PSALM to determine why the agency had to sell the barges to the detriment of Mindanao power consumers.