Visayas-Mindanao grid linkup project seen key to power woes’ resolution
Any solution to the power shortage hounding both the Visayas and Mindanao will have to include the long-delayed interconnection of the Visayas and Mindanao grids, a top executive of leading energy producer and distributor Aboitiz Power Corp. said in a briefing last Monday.
“Such interconnection has some strategic value. Visayas plants can feed the Mindanao grid during a drought and if there’s La Niña there, the Mindanao grid can feed the Visayas. This is something that should really be re-studied,” said Aboitiz Power President and Chief Executive Officer Erramon I. Aboitiz.
Mr. Aboitiz’s remarks echoed the call of acting Energy Secretary Jose C. Ibazeta last month for the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) to pursue the project, which was supposed to be commissioned in 2004 but was deferred due to lack of funds.
The project was envisioned to provide Mindanao with up to 500 megawatts (MW) of excess power from Luzon and the Visayas.
The National Transmission Corp., from which NGCP took over in 2008 the management of the country’s power transmission system for 25 years, had estimated in the early 2000s that the project would cost about $275 million from an original $450-million price tag.
NGCP’s 2009 Transmission Development Plan, which provides a blueprint for 2011-2015, now shows that the project has been moved to 2018.
Still short
Both the Visayas and Mindanao grids continue to suffer from a shortage traced to the lack of capacity in the Visayas and the low water levels in hydropower plants due to the dry spell in Mindanao. The NGCP Web site showed that the Visayas and Mindanao grids were short as of May 18 by 200 MW and 323 MW, respectively, while Luzon had thin reserves of 312 MW.
Only the Luzon and the Visayas grids are presently linked through submarine cables from Leyte, where the geothermal fields are located, to the Bicol region in the southern part of Luzon. Unless there’s also a shortage there, Luzon sends up to 200 MW of excess capacity to the Visayas when supply runs short here.
Mindanao, on the other hand, depends on local power plants, most of which are hydro-based.
Aboitiz Power, meanwhile, has dropped plans to bring in at least 10 MW of power from its 289-MW Tiwi plant in Albay to the Visayas during off-peak hours through the existing submarine cables connecting Luzon to Leyte and Leyte to Cebu.
“We have never been able to work it out. We have stopped pursuing it,” Mr. Aboitiz said.
Waiting for WESM
But he said this might be realized once the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) starts commercial operations in the Visayas. The Philippine Electricity Market Corp. has targeted to launch the spot market in Cebu next month.
Mr. Aboitiz noted that new capacities have come on stream in the Visayas, starting with the first 82-MW coal-fired power generating unit of Cebu Energy Development Corp. in Toledo City, Cebu. The second unit is undergoing tests and is expected to start commercial operations by the end of this month.
The power situation in the Visayas, however, remains unstable because both new and old generating plants continue to alternately experience technical problems.
Rotating daily one-hour power interruptions persist in Cebu. ABS-CBN/BusinessWorld
