Power crisis to continue due to population growth

CEBU, Philippines - Power shortage will continue to hound Cebu and the rest of the Visayas even if the new power plants will be operational.

An official from the Department of Energy, who requested not to be named, said the demand for more energy brought about by the population growth continues to increase.

Aside from this, some existing power plants were already too old that might conk out anytime. Those old power plants, he said, should undergo repair from time to time.

“But the things is, even if we will have new power plants, some of our power plants were too old and our demand for power continue to increase, so possible magkuwang lang gihapon ta og power,” the source said.

According to the source, if the new three power plants constructed by the Cebu Energy Development Corporation (246MW), the Panay Energy Development Corporation and the Salcon Power Corporation (200) will be operational, they will in anyway help solve the power crisis in Cebu.

It takes more than three years to build a power plant.

Cebu has been experiencing rotating brownout from one hour to two hours and a half as power shortage hits the Cebu-Negros-Panay Grid.

The energy official said that Cebu's eight power plants, with a total capacity of 500mw, is only operating at a 372 mw.

This is because some of power plants were no longer operating like the Naga City’s Land-based Gas Turbine, which has the capacity of 50 MW. – THE FREEMAN