DoE: Visayas needs power investments

CEBU, Philippines - More investments are needed in the energy sector to ensure sufficient power supply to households and to secure the growing industries particularly in the Visayas region, an official from the Department of Energy said.

Engineer Saul Gonzales of DoE Cebu field office said the department has been promoting the power industry for investments so to allow energy supply to keep up with the rising economic activities.

"Actually ang power crisis man gud year-in year-out na siya unless naay investors mo-come in," Gonzales, who is chief of the Energy Industry Management Division, told The FREEMAN in an interview yesterday.

"Di man ma-attract ang investors kung makita nila nga iyahang market limited o gamay kaayo," he added.

For this year and 2015, the DoE Visayas registered around 12 committed power projects to be developed in different provinces in the region. A coal-fired power plant with two units is also targeted to operate commercially in 2016.

These Visayas grid power generation investments which include solar, geothermal, hydro, biomass, coal and wind will produce 587.6 megawatts of power.

Five of these projects are expected to operate commercially by next year, data from DoE Cebu revealed, while the target commercial operations of two biomass and hydro power developments are still to be announced.

"Nagkinahanglan gyod ta og more investments sa (power industry). And so far, naa nay mga committed power projects nga na-register sa ato while ang uban indicative pa; meaning istorya-istorya pa sa plan," the energy official pointed out.

He said renewable energy accounts almost 50 percent of the energy sources in the region while traditional power sources -- coal, geothermal, hydro -- cover the remaining percentage.

While the national government has been calling for investments in renewable energy to generate power supply without harming the environment, Gonzales explained green technology has been adapted in traditional power plants to reduce the emission of pollutants.

The demand and supply outlook for Visayas next year is quite positive, he said, as power sources have been able to meet the energy requirements in the region.

He also added the existing power plants in the Visayas have been adding capacity to the region's power grid.

Documents from Energy Department has showed that Cebu sub-grid has an installed capacity of 974.2 MW and dependable capacity of 867.7 MW, Panay sub-grid currently holds an IC of 497.5 MW and DC of 414.3, Negros sub-grid has IC of 222.6 MW and 209.7 MW DC, Leyte-Samar sub-grid's IC is 722.7 MW and DC is 588 MW and Bohol sub-grid has 30.9 MW of IC and 23.7 MW of DC.

All in all, the Visayas currently has 2,447.9 of installed capacity and 2,103.3 of dependable capacity.

The Cebu sub-grid has the biggest share of the region's two overall capacities. (FREEMAN)