Advocacy group: Cebu bears power burden from Negros, Bohol coal bans

CEBU, Philippines — Cebu is being forced to shoulder part of the baseload power requirements of Negros and Bohol because of the provinces’ bans on coal-fired and diesel power plants, a Cebu-based energy advocacy group said, warning that the arrangement is putting additional pressure on an already strained Visayas grid.

The Cebu Energy Rights Advocates (CERA) is urging local leaders in Negros and Bohol to review their respective bans, saying the restrictions have effectively shifted part of the provinces’ power-generation burden to Cebu, Panay and Leyte.

“Demand for power is shared by one Visayas grid. Therefore, the responsibility for the burden of baseload supply must also be shared,” CERA convenor Nathaniel Chua said in a statement.

The provincial boards of Negros Oriental, Bohol and Negros Occidental enacted ordinances in 2018 and 2019 prohibiting the construction of coal-fired and diesel power plants within their jurisdictions.

CERA said the policies have contributed to the provinces’ dependence on electricity generated elsewhere, particularly when intermittent renewable sources such as solar power cannot meet demand.

Chua said Negros has more than 950 megawatts (MW) of installed capacity, but much of this comes from solar generation, which cannot provide dependable power during peak evening demand.

The island has only around 240 MW of baseload capacity from the Palinpinon geothermal plants, compared with a peak demand of roughly 450 MW, according to CERA.

Bohol faces a larger supply gap, with peak demand exceeding 100 MW while its dependable in-island capacity is only around 26 to 30 MW, CERA said.

Chua said these deficits are primarily supplied by coal-fired power plants in Cebu and Panay and geothermal generation from Leyte.

For Cebu, Chua said the arrangement comes as the province itself faces a growing power requirement. Cebu’s peak demand has exceeded 1,000 MW, while its in-island generation capacity is around 700 MW.

“Cebu and Panay are being forced to consider building even more coal plants just to support their own demand but also the demand of the region. Cebuanos are shouldering the environmental and infrastructure burden for islands that refuse to generate their own baseload power,” Chua said.

Panay is projected to reach a peak demand of about 600 MW later this year, compared with dependable in-island supply of around 500 MW, according to CERA.

Both Cebu and Panay have new coal-fired power projects in the pipeline.

Chua also warned that Leyte and Samar may eventually have less excess geothermal power available for export as their economies grow and local demand increases.

“Unless Palinpinon in Negros expands, our next best solution is to build coal power plants for our baseload needs for the medium term,” he said.

Chua said the situation is further complicated by the limited capacity of submarine transmission connections linking the Visayas with Luzon and Mindanao.

The Visayas has an overall demand of about 2,400 MW, according to the group.

Samar-Leyte remains the only Visayan island group that is a net exporter of electricity for now, with around 700 MW of supply, mostly geothermal, against peak demand of about 310 MW.

Chua warned that continued dependence on imported baseload electricity without sufficient local 24-hour generation could put further pressure on inter-island transmission facilities and increase the risk of widespread power shortages across the Visayas. — (FREEMAN)