DAVAO CITY—Between now and June next year would be the critical period for the energy sector in Mindanao before a dramatic shift to a power-surplus regime with the anticipated entry and activation of at least four coal plants by the middle of next year, a Davao Light and Power Co. (DLPC) executive here said on Monday.
Arturo Milan, chief operations officer of DLPC, said the heavy reliance of the Mindanao grid to hydroelectric source of power is seen to impact heavily on the availability of power when the summer heat would dry up the water of Lake Lanao and Pulangui River in Bukidnon.
Although the rains have raised the water levels at the two monitoring stations of the National Power Corp. in the Agus River network in the Lanao provinces and the sole monitoring station in Maramag, Bukidnon, the water levels, however, have been sucking up mud that force periodic curtailments of electric supply across the island.
Electric distribution companies in Mindanao have been told to brace for the same worse scenario to come by first semester of next year.
Milan said that while Mindanao would expect the coal plants to come in succession late this year to the entire year of next year, their full capacities would not be coming in by the time the El Niño dry spell would also be at its peak next year.
The Aboitiz-owned coal plant in Binugao, Toril, west of this city, has began to put online to the grid its one unit of 150 megawatts (MW) and its second unit would be coming in by the first quarter next year, he said.
A public PowerPoint presentation by the transmission firm, National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP), said the Toril coal plant would put into commercial operation its second unit by March next year. This coal plant is managed by the the Aboitiz subsidiary, Therma South Inc.
The NGCP said that earlier last month, the solar plant in Kirahon, Lanao del Norte, was also put into commercial operation bringing in 10 MW to the grid.
The Alcantara and Sons-owned coal plant in Sarangani would also begin supplying 100 MW by January 25 next year, the NGCP said.
The first unit of the coal plant of the Filinvest Land Inc. in Misamis Oriental would also be connected to the grid by April, while one unit of the SMC Global Power Holdings Corp. in Malita, Davao del Sur, would be put to commercial operation by March, the NGCP added.
While these new baseloads would be expected to ease another round of energy crisis, Milan said the changing target schedules and the less than full capacities in the first half would remain a critical period for Mindanao.
“But after this critical period, Mindanao can now safely say that it has the excess supply that we can say as reserve power,” he said. “It’s unlike now that we are all talking about scheduling our power supply and to adapt rotating brownouts to distribute power needs rationally to our customers,” Milan added.
Davao City Mayor and reported presidential aspirant Rodrigo Duterte, who was asked of his opinion about the role of the coal plants, said on Sunday that the power shortage in Mindanao would force “me to accept coal to remedy the situation.”
“We cannot deny that Mindanao is really in a bad shape about electricity. So we just have to accept that these coal plants would help,” he said.
The four coal plants coming in would have a combined capacity of 2,115 MW, with the Malita coal plant in Barangay Culaman accounting for slight more than half of this total with 1,200 MW.
The Filinvest coal plant in Villanueva, Misamis Oriental, has 405 MW; the Alsons plant in Barangay Kamanga, Maasim, Sarangani, with 210 MW. The Aboitiz plant here has 300 MW; with a planned expansion of another additional 300 MW.
These plants would cover for more than the projected peak demand of 1,711 MW by November next year as computed by the NGCP, based on projections from the electric distribution utilities in the cities and the rural electric cooperatives in the provinces.