STEAG coal plant expansion eyed to plug Mindanao supply shortfall
Wednesday, June 14, 2006
By MYRNA M. VELASCO
With Mindanao electricity consumers wary of near-term power outages, Energy Secretary Raphael P.M. Lotilla noted that they are partly pinning hope on prospects that the 210-megawatt coal-fired power facility of STEAG State Power Inc. will gear up for an expansion.
At the moment, the energy chief can only make assurance that the government will do its level-best to address looming supply shortfall in the area.
"There is a big possibility that there would be additional supply for the island if Mindanao coal plant expands," he told an inquiry of the Joint Congressional Power Commission.
The facility is scheduled for commercial operation January next year and this is seen adding up 15 percent of the island grid’s supply. However, this is not enough to guarantee reliable supply for Mindanao, even in the immediate term.
Apart of the transmission line link-up being pursued by the National Transmission Corporation (TransCo), the energy chief opined that the best solution to plug capacity gap would still be to put a power plant or expand the capacity of existing facilities in the area.
"It is ideal for the source of power to be put up in the island and nearer to where the demand is," the energy chief stressed.
Studies of TransCo indicated that Mindanao has a surplus capacity of 373 megawatts. However, more than 70 percent of this generating capacity is found in Northern Mindanao with the southern part only accounting for more than 20 percent.
Demand, however, is booming in the South, fuelled largely by the economic growth being experienced by the cities of Davao and General Santos which have seen electricity demand increase by 10 percent annually.
The siting and design of future capacity, according to the energy secretary, shall of course take into consideration the recurrent problem of terrorist attacks in some parts of Mindanao.
TransCo has been lining up the Leyte-Mindanao interconnection project; but JCPC co-chairman and Lanao del Norte Rep. Alipio Cirilo V. Badelles said that this should first be subjected to a more cautious study, because if supply shortages in Visayas or Mindanao occurs, the consumers might be saddled with paying for fixed costs of facilities that might not be useful in the future.
With the proposed uprating of the Abaga-Kirahon and Maramag-Bunawag transmission lines, it is hoped that greater volume of supply can be transmitted from the northern part of Mindanao, where most of the power plants are located, to the southern corridor, which is being positioned as Mindanao’s next industrial hub.
With existing capacity not being able to reliably supply the entire grid’s requirement in the next few years though, the energy department is now aggressively inviting investors to put up new power projects in the area.
But as the government flexes muscles to lure much-needed investment for additional capacities in Mindanao, investors have raised concern over relentless threat of attacks on power installations in the area, noting that this thrives among the most daunting challenge that they would have to contend with.
It can be culled that some parts of Mindanao have been a perpetual breeding ground of terroristic activities, particularly those perpetrated by Abu Sayyaf and secessionist groups.
posted by philpower @ 10:48 AM,
