Amid the looming power outages in Luzon and electricity shortage in Mindanao, workers go on construction frenzy, installing electric cables to upgrade the power supply of the new Metro Rail Transit (MRT-7) project. (Photo by MICHAEL VARCAS)

A Malacañang official assured Friday that the Department of Energy (DoE) remains in control of the power situation in the country, allaying fears of widespread electricity shortage in the run-up to the May 10, 2010 automated elections.

Deputy Presidential Spokesman Gary Olivar gave this assurance as Mindanao power consumers are experiencing a six-hour rotating brownout since last week and Luzon will start experiencing up to three hours of power interruption starting next week.

But Olivar said that should there be widespread power shortage, President Arroyo has the option to declare a state of emergency.

So far, Olivar told Palace reporters that the country is not enduring any extensive power deficiency and expressed hope the supply problem would be resolved as soon as possible.

“If the problem ever gets to be that serious, that is one of the alternatives open to her. Hopefully, it will not reach to that level. I don’t think we are there yet and we hope we will not reach that situation,” he said about the President’s option to declare a state of emergency to address a power crisis.

Olivar assured that the Arroyo government is ready to take the necessary measures “as the situation develops, if it gets worse or if gets better.”

“The important thing is we are monitoring the situation and giving the corresponding solution,” he added.

He said Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes has secured the commitment Luzon-based power distributors of adequate power supply at least after the May national and local elections.

Another meeting has been arranged next week with power firms in Visayas and Mindanao to craft action plans that will address rotating brownouts.

“Rotating brownouts are time honored way of managing excess demand from time to time. I think we can assure the DoE is doing all it can to minimize, if not totally avoid, the inconvenience of this form of demand management,” he said.

Olivar admitted that long and frequent power shortages may eventually dampen economic growth in case of weakened business activities.

At the moment, he said there was no imminent major threat to the country’s growth prospects despite the supply problems in some parts of the country. He said the predictability of the brownouts was important so the government and the private sector could prepare contingency measures.

“Right now I don’t get any advice or any sense that we are looking a major threat to our growth prospects but obviously this is a developing situation. We will keep you updated,” he said.

He said the lack of power supply was apparently caused by power plant breakdowns on blamed on technical problems and low water levels from the El Niño phenomenon.

In Mindanao, resident reported power outages almost in all cities and provinces in the southern island, particularly Northeastern and Northern Mindanao.

Worst, the power curtailment happened during peak hours.

Badly affected are the mining, wood and agriculture industries, schools, offices both government and private hospitals.

The legislative body of the city of Butuan is now forming an investigating body to look into the problem.

It was learned that all businesses under the Northeastern and Northern Mindanao Business Chamber of Commerce are reportedly losing millions of pesos daily while some the companies have already rotated their time schedule where many of the workers are affected.

“This is a very serious problem,” said an officer of the business chamber in Butuan City.

The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) has started to implement power load shedding throughout Mindanao as it anticipates that power supply will remain below comfortable levels.

Eugene Bicar, NGCP Mindanao’s Systems Operations (SO) head, said the hydroelectric power plants in the Mindanao Grid have reduced generation by at least 50 percent of their total capacity due to low water inflow of Lake Lanao and Pulangi River due to the onset of the dry spell.

The generating capacity is also anticipated to remain insufficient due to the unavailability of Agus 5 (Units 1 & 2), the Mindanao Coal Fired Power Plant (Unit 2), and the Iligan Diesel Power Plant.

The Western Mindanao Power Corporation’s power plant in Zamboanga City also decreased its output from 90 to 80 megawatts as of February 9, Bicar said.

Bicar urged the execution of some measures to address the situation in the short term.

The measures include the completion of the Agus 5 Hydroelectric Plant (HEP) preventive maintenance and trash rack repair; resumption of the operation of the Iligan Diesel Power Plant (IDPP) to be expedited by the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corporation (PSALM) and the National Power Corporation; and the contracting of additional power generation if there is available from embedded generations.

Likewise, Bicar said the completion of the repair of the Agus 2–Kibawe 138 KV Lines 1 and 2, and the commissioning of the Maramag–Bunawan 230 KV backbone project will also help strengthen the network interconnection of the Mindanao Grid.

The NGCP is implementing a Mindanao-wide load curtailment and this advisory is already being circulated to its power customers, said Elizabeth Ladaga, corporate relations officer of NGCP Mindanao.

As a result, electric cooperatives are also imposing rotating brownouts to its service areas.

Residents in affected areas experience power interruptions, with daily schedules on peak hours, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and 4 p.m. to 10 p.m.

The Davao Light and Power Company (DLPC) on Thursday also announced its rotational power outages in the area.

DLPC Corporate Community Relations manager Vic Sumalinog said Mindanao faces the prospect of rotational power outages as the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) announced a “red alert state” in the Mindanao Grid due to generation deficiency.

The expected power interruptions were to be rotated between 1 p.m. and 8 p.m. (With a report from Nonoy Lacson)