Local officials urged to raise power rates

To avert the looming power crisis in Cebu and other parts of the Visayas, local officials are urged to help make the price of electricity “competitive” for the investors.

Alejandro Oanes, officer-in-charge of the Geothermal and Coal Division Energy Resource Development Bureau of the Department of Energy said the power sector in the Visayas is now facing a big challenge because without additional capacity, power crisis will likely to happen in the next few years.

In his presentation during the recent regional consultation on the Philippine Energy Plan held in Cebu City, Oanes said the Cebu grid’s power supply is becoming tight because as of December 2007 its demand has reached 512 megawatts but its dependable capacity is only 377 megawatts.

But Cebu is lucky because the Leyte-Samar grid, where the geothermal fields are located, send their excess power here and the rest of the Visayas grid.

The Leyte-Samar grid produces 667 megawatts but only has a demand of 194 megawatts.

“This is now the challenge for the power sector because the National Power Corporation is no longer allowed to put up new plants, so there is need for private sector participation especially in the Visayas,” Oanes said.

However, he added that many investors are also discouraged to put up new power plants here because the price of electricity is low.

“The support of our local leaders is very important…the rates in the Visayas and Mindanao are low, so how do we make the price competitive to encourage the investors?” Oanes said.

Without additional capacity, Cebu and the rest of the Cebu-Negros-Panay grid are expected to experience power crisis few years from now.

Benjamin Ypil, information officer of the National Transmission Corporation-Visayas office said that based on their data there is a 5.5-percent annual growth in their load for the Visayas since the year 2000 until 2007.

The Department of Energy earlier said that the CNP grid will need a total of 261MW by 2010 to avert a power shortage. – Wenna A. Berondo