Secretary Jesus Dureza, the new chair of the Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA), said Malacañang is looking into a series of actions and options to deal with a “calamity situation” due to an acute and worsening power shortage.
In a statement, Dureza said Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes presented several options during the Cabinet meeting last Tuesday presided over by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
“Government is firmly resolved to address it decisively,” Dureza said.
“A power deficiency of 700MW is devastating to the economy and the water levels in the Agus and Pulangi hydroelectric plants have reached critical levels. Longer brownouts are now being experienced throughout the island region. The situation is expected to worsen as we are still now on the onset of the El Niño,” he said.
Dureza said a private sector initiative by the Mindanao Business Council and the Mindanao Electric Power Alliance, a coalition of power providers and cooperatives, is proposing to mount an immediate power generating project.
“A Cabinet level group headed by Executive Secretary Larry Mendoza will meet with the group within the next few days to discuss their proposal,” he said.
Dureza said the other immediate action plans include the transfer of available power barges to Mindanao; the running of embedded generators or standby generators owned by malls, hotels, and others; re-scheduling of work/production activities of big power consumers to low demand hours, and others.
“There is also a need for the Energy Regulatory Commission to expeditiously act on pending issues to address abnormal conditions. There are some pricing formula that remain unresolved and are now veritable bottlenecks to remedial measures,” Dureza said.
“The stakeholders of Mindanao, both private and public have expressed full cooperation to address this crisis situation,” he added.
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