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CEBU CITY—The
business community in Cebu has expressed concern over
the looming critical power situation in the
Cebu-Negros-Panay grid in the next two years.
Carlos
Co, chairman of a special committee of the Cebu Chamber
of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) tasked to oversee the
power situation, said sustained economic growth but the
nonarrival of new generation units is eating up on the
already thinning power reserves. “I would not say that
it is in the crisis level yet, but the situation is
certainly going to be critical starting by the fourth
quarter of next year,” Co told the BusinessMirror.
The
Cebu-Negros-Panay (CNP) grid, fed mainly by
geothermal-power supply from
Leyte, consumes close to 900 MW of power at its peak. At present,
the grid only has some 80 megawatts (MW) in reserves.
“That
peak may be eaten up by ongoing developments, especially
in the Cebu area,” Co explained. “Atlas Mining [set to
open mid-2008] alone will need 20 MW to 40 MW.”
In a
meeting between the power core group of the CCCI and
power stakeholders last week, Co said the Visayan
Electric Co. (Veco) and the National Power Corp. have
committed to bring in at least two power barges to
provide additional power to the grid by 2009. “Without
these barges, the grid will be left with no reserves.
Even when a small plant goes down, there will be
rotation brownouts again,” he said.
The two
barges rated at some 20 MW each could be used during
peak hours, but may mean a slight increase in the power
bills, especially of Veco consumers in Metro Cebu.
Co
estimates that with the power mix of Veco, the arriving
diesel-fed barges would mean an additional 10 to 15
centavos per kilowatt-hour for consumers.
“Let us
just continue to hope and pray that the peso would
continue to strengthen so the cost of fuel will still be
down,” he said. “The appreciation of the peso has helped
a lot in keeping power generated by diesel down.”
The
power situation is expected to stabilize once the
coal-fired 150-MW coal-fired power plant of Global
Business Power and Formosa Heavy Industries in Toledo
City goes online by early 2010.
To meet
the expected surge in demand in
Cebu by 2010, Abovant Holdings Inc., a joint venture between
Aboitiz Power Corp. and Vivant Corp., will invest $400
million to expand by another 246 MW the 100-MW
Toledo
power plant in Cebu.
APC and
Vivant entered into a memorandum of agreement to form
Abovant Holdings Inc. as a corporate vehicle for the
project.
Abovant
Holdings partnered with global Formosa, which is a
venture between Global Power and Formosa Heavy
Industries of Taiwan, to complete the implementing
corporate entity for the
Toledo
project. The parties signed an agreement that form the
joint-venture company that will develop, construct and
own the coal-fired plant.
Abovant
said they will expand the plant by three units with
82-MW capacity each, and that the project cost had been
increased from what was initially estimated to cost $250
million.
Abovant
said the expansion project was initially envisioned to
be expanded by 150 MW.
Another
200-MW coal-fired plant, by Kepco Philippines Corp. in
Naga City, is expected to be partially online by 2011.
“These
additional power could be enough to sustain us for the
next four to five years,” Co said.
Three
years ago, Cebu and the CNP grid was also in a “looming
power crisis,” with power demand steadily increasing and
a stagnant generation input. The situation was
aggravated by power plants unexpectedly conking out,
sending Metro Cebu into rotation brownouts almost
regularly.
The
situation was remedied with the completion of
P3.7-billion uprating of the submarine power cable
linking the
Leyte geothermal fields to northern
Cebu.
The project, completed in 2005, doubled the submarine
cable’s capacity to some 400 MW supplying additional
base load power for the grid.
The CNP
grid relies heavily on geothermal power in
Leyte and
Negros islands, which account for some 71 percent of the supply.
Bunker oil and diesel supply some 18 percent, coal 11
percent and hydroelectric plants 1 percent.
The
Department of Energy field office in the Visayas earlier
announced that the Philippine National Oil Co.-Energy
Development Corp. (PNOC-EDC) is working on a 40-MW
geothermal project in Dauin, Oriental Negros, which is
expected to go online in 2011.
The
PNOC-EDC is also exploring an additional 80-MW Southern
Leyte Geothermal Project, which is set to be completed
by 2015. (With P. Isla) |
