Power Crisis in Mindanao--- " Deprived Host"

Deprived Host

"Deprived Host"

Kidapawan City in North Cotabato Province is one of the worst hit by Mindanao’s power crisis with at least eight hours to 10 hours of daily power curtailment in the first quarter of the year.

Small and medium traders in North Cotabato expressed dismay over the eight-hour daily rotating brownout like the case of auto repair shop operator Gregorio Tuburan.

Tuburan said, almost half of the day is wasted, as they are dependent on electricity. The situation has resulted in the decrease of his income due to low productivity.

During cut-off times, business establishments, government offices and other commercial buildings use generators.

At nights supermarkets also rely on generators. Vendors pool their money to purchase mini-generators to continue trade inside a dark supermarket.

But those who cannot afford to buy generators have survived only with the use of battery trucks, chargeable LED lights, and candles and even improvised oil lamps.

Feeling the suffering of the people from the power curtailments, Kidapawan City officials have demanded the Department of Energy to appropriate energy share from the total generated energy.

Energy Act of 1992 states that energy-generating facilities in the country like the Mt. Apo geothermal plants is obliged to allocate 25 percent of the total daily output to the host town and provinces.

But this demand has not been granted yet, resulting in the filing of civil suit  against energy officials and power operators.

During the height of power shortage, Cotelco has only 15.4 megawatts of daily load dispatch from the Napocor.

Cotelco needs a regular 32 to 36 megawatts power load to continue a stable operation.

At the moment, Mindanao Grid has a shortage of 400 megawatts of power supply.

But several officials and progressive groups have claimed there is no actual power crisis in Mindanao.

According to them, power cartel sectors that privatized the industry are behind the “artificial” power crisis to compel local cooperatives in buying power from much more expensive power barges.

On the second week of May, Cotelco has managed to buy an additional 8 megawatts of power supply from the private power barge supplier, Therma Marine Incorporated (TMI) to augment power shortages in North Cotabato.

Cotelco now can maintain 28 up to 30 megawatts of power load which is now expecting fewer hours of brownouts.

Purchase of power load from diesel fuel-powered power barges like TMI is three times of the price from that coming from hydro-power generated energy, this would mean an increase in charges to power consumers.

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