DOE sees power crisis looming in the Visayas

There will be a power crisis in the Visayas five to six years from now, considering the current condition vis-à-vis the region's annual demand growth, said the report of the Department of Energy recently.

The DOE said the prevailing power situation in the region is already hitting near critical level and the region posted the highest demand growth nationwide at 6.2 percent a year.

This means that the region is projected to suffer critical power situation between the year 2011 and 2012, if no additional capacity would be set within the next few years, said Elizabeth Navalta, director of the DOE's Energy Policy and Planning Bureau.

Navalta presented this grim scenario as she gave updates of the Philippine Energy Plan to the regional planners during the Regional Development Council meeting Friday.

The demand growth for power in Visayas is the highest in the country, even higher than the national average of 4.1 percent, she said.

The Mindanao region has the second highest average demand growth with 6.0 percent annually, followed by Luzon with 4.0 percent.

But Navalta reported that Mindanao would be the first to suffer from lack of power based on the DOE projections that this year and the next are the critical years for the power sector in this part of the country.

For Luzon, the years 2010 and 2011 are expected to be its critical years, said Navalta.

The Visayas region needs additional capacity of 980 megawatts from 2008 to 2014, based on DOE's projections on the estimated supply requirements of distribution utilities and directly connected customers of the National Power Corporation.

"Critical period may happen later than indicated if the consumers will respond to the government's efforts of promoting demand-side management such as time-of use rates, not only in the generation level but in the distribution level," the DOE report said.

To address the problem, Navalta said the government has been working to increase the country's oil and gas reserves by about 20 percent, and promote the use of indigenous coal.

The government has to reduce coal imports by 20 percent while increasing renewable energy-based capacity by 100 percent, all in the next 10 years, the DOE said.

The DOE has been enhancing also the implementation of alternative fuels for transportation to veer away from too much dependence on imported petroleum products and generate savings for the government. - Wenna A. Berondo