Cebu to lose investments if power problems persist

CEBU, Philippines - Cebu is bound to lose millions of investments from multinational investors in the Business process Outsourcing (BPO), tourism, and other big-ticket industries if the power shortage problem in the province continues to worsen.

Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) power core group committee chairman Carlos Co said while the large business entities have to automatically use their generators to cope with the daily power interruption, this will not only give additional operational cost burden to industry players, but this will also smear Cebu’s attractiveness to the international investors.

Co said BPO companies in particular need a 24/7 uninterrupted operation, this problem should be given special attention by the concerned agencies, the business sector here said.

Fortunately, Co said the medium to large businesses can still operate despite the daily power interruption as they can afford to buy generators, but small businesses on the other hand have no other option but to cease operations during a power outage, thereby sacrificing potential revenue.

Some manufacturing companies however, that can not afford to stop their operations have to adopt the TOU (time-of-use) concept, focusing their full operations during night times, while power demand is at its lowest.

Philippine Retailers Association (PRA-Cebu) past president Jonathan Jay P. Aldeguer said “although not as bad as manufacturing oriented companies,” still the retail sector is also gravely affected by the daily power interruption.

Early this year, the Cebu Business Club (CBC) CBC led by businessman Dondi Joseph also called the attention of the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) and the Department of Energy (DOE) to conduct a formal study of Cebu’s future power requirements relative to the economic growth of Cebu and its neighbors projected over the next 15 years. NEDA and DOE are urged to conduct this study “right away.”

Also, an establishment of a Council was urged to focus on energy options consisting of realistically available renewable or environmentally friendly energy sources. This council should be formed and spearheaded by the Regional Development Council (RDC) Infrastructure Committee.

Mandaue Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI) president Eric Ng Mendoza said had DOE been effective in their long term planning to invite power plant investors to anticipate the tripling demand of power by this time, the Philippines or Cebu may not have to suffer from power shortage problem.

“In many cases in the last few years, we [business sector] had been expressing our concerns of power scarcity to be experience by Cebu around this time, but only to realize that our pleadings were useless,” Mendoza said.

However, amid the sacrifice made by Cebuano power consumers on the daily power interruption Roger Lim, general manager of Cebu Private Power Corporation and East Asia Utilities Corporation revealed that Cebu has a hidden power capacity, but this is not embedded into the Cebu-Negros-Panay grid due to its high cost of operation.

“If the price is right, there is no shortage,” Lim said emphasizing that power players like the independent power producers are not allowed under the regulatory regime to sell the true cost of electricity.