Visayas RDC chairs push for more power sources
Officials of Central and Western Visayas said energy supply projects should be fast-tracked to address the power supply deficit in the region and to prevent blackouts.
Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia, chair of the Regional Development Council (RDC) of Central Visayas, said short-term measures should also be implemented until the construction of new power plants will be completed.
Garcia said business firms in Cebu and power distributor Visayan Electric Company (Veco) have entered into an “interruptible load agreement” wherein firms can be requested to run their own power generators once there is a shortfall in the power supply.
Under this scheme demand on the Visayas grid will be reduced preventing brownouts, said Garcia during a press conference on Sunday during the Binirayan Festival in the capital town of San Jose in Antique.
Cebu expects an additional supply of 436 mw in 2010-2011with the expected completion of two coal-fired power plants, said Garcia.
Antique Gov. Salvacion Zaldivar-Perez, chair of the RDC of Western Visayas, said construction of power plants in Western Visayas are scheduled to address the power crisis.
Among these is the construction of a hydropower plant in 2010 in Antique and biomass power plants in Capiz and Iloilo
“It is a wake up call--all these brownouts,” said Perez in the press conference.
The governors said these projects could help prevent massive blackouts that occurred last Saturday which left of most of the Visayas without electricity for more around hours.
The blackout occurred after power generation units at the Leyte Geothermal Power Plant malfunctioned around 9:38 a.m. following a transmission line tripping at Tabango on the Leyte side.