CAGAYAN DE ORO—A spokesman of the Cagayan Electric Power and Light Company said that additional power from an Aboitiz-owned coal power plant which has resumed operations Monday is not enough to address the power situation in Mindanao.
Marilyn Chaves, spokesperson of Cepalco, said that while they had started receiving the extra electricity from Aboitiz, it came in trickles and had merely shortened their power outages to two and a half hours from the usual four hours.
She added that Cagayan de Oro City was running a daily deficit of 52 megawatts.
Wilfredo Rodolfo III, communication manager of Aboitiz Power Corp., said Unit 1 of their Therma Marine South generating 150 megawatts of electricity went operational at 8 a.m. Monday to help address the bleak power outlook in Mindanao worsened by El Niño.
He added that another coal plant, also generating 150 megawatts, is expected to be operational by February next year.
Both Aboitiz-owned coal plants in Toril, Davao del Sur were shut down only a few months after it went operational in August this year.
The shutdown strained the power outlook of Mindanao already strained by the effects of the El Nino on the island’s hydroelectric plants.
According to Chaves, the Cepalco Christmas tree in Cagayan de Oro’s Divisoria, a source of pride for the residents, has remained unlit as of Monday night despite the additional electricity from Aboitiz.
Romeo Montenegro, director of Mindanao Authority Investment Promotions and Public Information, said major Mindanao cities like Cagayan de Oro and Davao suffer the most because Christmas season is their highest peak demand for electricity.
“Smaller cities and towns can easily offset their electricity demand for Christmas by tapping to their modular generating sets,” he said.
Montenegro said the dry spell brought by El Nino has lowered the water elevation of Lake Lanao to 700.88 meters and Pulangi River in Bukidnon to 282.5 meters on Monday.
He said Pulangi hydro plant in Bukidnon is only producing 60 megawatts when it is capable of producing 255 megawatts of electricity on normal times.
Montenegro said, on the other hand, the Agus hydro plants, a complex of six hydro plants, is now only producing 269 megawatts when it is capable of producing more than 700 megawatts of electricity.