© COPYRIGHT 2008. All rights reserved. Republic of the Philippines, Congressional Commission on Science and Technology and Engineering (COMSTE)
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Hydroelectric power-dependent Mindanao close to its knees as water levels hit bottom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . DAVAO CITY—Hitting rock bottom at the heavily silted Lake Lanao and in the Pulangi River in Bukidnon, the water level has become the central gauge at how far the Mindanao grid could sustain the capacities of its electric power plants, as the El Niño dry spell phenomenon continues to scorch the country. Even before hitting the hottest months of summer, business and government joined power companies to raise the bar at scrounging for power wherever it could be found, sourced or saved because the dip in the water level has also caused power outages. The frequency of the brownouts have become bothersome to a point that, in one instance, it has been blamed for the death on Thursday of two mining workers in a small-scale mining area in South Cotabato after a blower conked out, cutting off oxygen supply to the tunnel. El Niño was already forecast to hit the country this year, but its effect was not expected to hit this worse this early, especially on power. The National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP), at the instance of the National Power Corp. (Napocor), issued the red-alert status on its generation in Lake Lanao in Lanao del Sur and in Pulangi River in Maramag, Bukidnon. The Private Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp., which took over ownership from the Napocor, has maintained seven power plants, one of the—Agus 2—has not been functional in the Agus River, where the Lake Lanao drains its water, and the Pulangi IV power plant. As brownouts become threateningly frequent and longer with the El Niño’s heat expected to become more intense until the rains come in May—the soonest, or in July the farthest, the search for power has brought innovative ideas, from energy conservation among the households to restoring the capacities of existing power plants and making large corporations and establishments contribute their embedded power to the grid. At the meeting on Thursday called by Jesus Dureza, presidential adviser on Mindanao Affairs, officers of the NGCP and the power distributors briefed government and business groups that Mindanao was in the middle of a serious reduction of the capacities of the generation plants to supply the Mindanao grid of its 1,200 megaWatts of dependable power. “The grid is 51-percent off its dependable generation because it is that much that we are dependent on hydroelectric power. When there is no water, like we are now experiencing, the grid is automatically 51-percent off its capability,” said Edgardo Calabio, the regional corporate executive of NGCP’s revenue and regulatory affairs. The NGCP advisory last week warned that the capacity of the Agus power plants has been reduced to as much as 60 percent and the Pulangi plant to 80 percent. The Pulangi plant’s current capacity, out of its 255-mW capacity, “could not even be good for two hours.” The Agus’s 982-mW capacity has been reduced to 118 mW. That means that from the comfortable level of 701 (meters above sea level) masl to 700.5 masl for the Napocor to operate under normal condition, the water level has been hovering at the critical level of 699.15 masl. It is at this level where the Lake Lanao could have its lowest spillage level to the Agus River, which means the Napocor could not use the water anymore to run its turbines. The implications at forcing the use of water from the lake included incurring damaging effect to the engines, denying the environment of water or sending the Napocor people into imprisonment. “Yes, there’s a law that prohibits government from utilizing water below the 699.15 masl,” said Calabio. Restoring capacities Joseph Nocos, vice president of the Alto Power Management Corp., which oversees the completion of the Alsons-owned $350-million 200-megaWatt coal-fired power plant in Kiamba and Maitum towns in Sarangani province, corroborates the different implications on further utilitizing the barest available water in the lake. To lick the deteriorating power situation in Mindanao, so far only the remaining island group with the problem teetering toward an energy crisis similar in 1992 and 1998, Nocos said his colleagues in the Mindanao Power Alliance (Mipa) would agree that there must be a decision soon to scrounge for power wherever it would be found. One is to restore the capacities of the existing plants which have been deactivated for various reasons, including the wait for repair and damage due to being “cannibalized of its spare parts.” So far, discussions have centered on two facilities: the Western Mindanao Power Plant (WMPP) in Sangali, Zamboanga City, and the Iligan Diesel Power Plant (IDPP) in Dalipuga, Iligan City. If restoration could be done “as soon as possible” to the fire-damaged engines in the WMPP and if the spare parts could be bought immediately to replace what have been scavenged and “cannibalized” from the four or five engines in the IDPP Plant 1, “we can expect at the most 85 mW to 100 mW to be on-stream by the middle of March.” “The problem in the IDPP plant, the spare parts can be obtained in the next six months, aside from costing millions of dollars,” Nocos said. The IDPP, with two power plants, have a total potential capacity of 100 megaWatts, but the rehabilitation of the facility has been stopped by the tax case filed by the Iligan City government, which was claiming as much as P700 million in arrears. Napocor has estimated a lower amount of P400 million. Nocos said that the tax case would not be a hindrance to any fresh attempt to rehabilitate it. Dureza also confirmed it, telling power and corporate representatives who attended the Thursday meeting at the office of the Mindanao Economic Development Council (Medco) that Iligan City Mayor Lawrence Cruz has agreed to help speed up the restoration of the IDPP. On the two power barges (PB 117 moored along Nasipit Bay in Agusan del Norte, and PB 118 off Maco, Compostela Valley) with 100-mW capacity each, the grid could only expect about 50 mW from each unit owing to rehabilitation work on them. The two barges, which were stationed in Mindanao in the aftermath of the 1992 energy crisis, were recently bought by the publicly listed Aboitiz Power Corp.
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