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By Ma. Ester L. Espina, Correspondent
TALISAY CITY: There is no way to
go but energy self-sufficiency for Negros and Panay islands to avert
the looming power crisis by 2010.
This was partly the immediate
solution presented by Energy Sec. Angelo Reyes at the Energy Summit
that urged stakeholders to encourage private sector investment in
power plants in Negros and Panay held on Wednesday at Nature’s
Village, Talisay City, Negros Occidental.
Currently, Negros is experiencing
a deficit of 31 megawatts at peak hours while Panay needs an
additional 30.6 megawatts, these despite attempts to transfer
maximum power to these areas out of the surplus from Leyte’s power
source.
The Department of Energy’s
monitoring showed that for the months of March and April, Negros and
Panay experienced power outages for 13 and 23 days, respectively,
due to the maintenance of the Palinpinon geothermal plant.
Reyes said he is looking forward
to a future where the people in the Visayas will have brownout-free
days, but that will happen only if the stakeholders will work
together and ensure that the islands have an investment-friendly
atmosphere to encourage investors to come in and set up power plants
to answer their needs.
At this point, Reyes said the
government could only do so much because the Epira law has outlawed
the national government from putting up new plants. While there have
been private sector- initiated proposals to set up power plants in
Negros and Panay, the local opposition has scared them away which
resulted to the current power crisis these areas experience, and
which is seen to worsen in a couple of years.
“Environmental concerns and
‘NIMBY’ (not in my own backyard) mentality against power
projects could have prevented the current power shortage,” Reyes
said, referring to the strong opposition against the proposed
Pulupandan coal-fired power plant in 2001 and Kepco coal plant in
Panay in 2003, both of which could have provided 100 and 200
megawatts, respectively.
With scheduled maintenance shut
downs of Visayas base load plant units, particularly that of the
Leyte and Tongonan geothermal plants, the Cebu coal thermal plant,
and the Palinpinon and Nothern Negros geothermal plants, power
supply shortage in Negros and Panay is expected to worsen if no
immediate solution is adapted.
Transco President Art Aguilar
explained that while the Leyte source may have a surplus of 360
megawatts, more than enough to sustain the needs of Cebu, Negros and
Panay, “there is a limit to how much you can transmit to these
areas even if Leyte doubles its capacity through sheer law of
physics.”
“Exporting power through the
lines reaching the end of Panay is limited, thus the need to set-up
your own power-generating plants in the area,” Aguilar added.
Reyes, on the other hand, said
there is a need to balance everything, referring to opposition
against coal-fired power plants and the recent request of Philippine
National Oil Corp.-Energy Development Corp. (PNOC-EDC) to expand
their geothermal development. “While we would all want to protect
the environment foremost, the cost of not having enough power is a
lot more,” he said.
Using renewable energy is still
the way to go in the future because its sources are sustainable,
Reyes added.
He also announced that he will be
back Monday together with PNOC-EDC to present solutions and programs
that will address the strong reservations of Bacolod Bishop Vicente
Navarra against the expansion development of PNOC in the Mount
Kanlaon National Park.
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