DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 17 January)—Expect possible increasing power rates throughout the year amid the anticipated El Niño phenomenon in the country, an official from the Department of Energy (DOE)-Mindanao said.
Engr. Darwin P. Galang, DOE-Mindanao senior science research specialist, said the anticipated increasing power rates can be possibly El Niño-related, with 26 percent of Mindanao’s energy coming from hydro plants, mainly from the state-run Agus-Pulangi Hydropower Complex.
The complex has seven hydroelectric plants—Agus 1, Agus 2, Agus 4, Agus 5, Agus 6, and Agus 7 in the Lanao provinces and Pulangi 4 in Bukidnon.
Meanwhile, DOE’s data as of October 2023 show that out of Mindanao’s gross power generation of 15,473 gigawatthours (GWh), around 31.07 percent (or 4,807 GWh) comes from hydro energy.
Galang told reporters on Monday that if the water levels of the Agus and Pulangi rivers will decrease due to El Niño, “it will certainly have an impact on rates.”
Citing DOE’s latest data, he also said that aside from hydro power plants, Mindanao gets from other sources, such as coal power plants, which accounts for 60.12 percent of the island’s power generation mix; oil-based accounting for 2.9 percent; geothermal at 4.46 percent; biomass at 0.74 percent; and solar at 0.71 percent.
Galang said some power utilities would also prefer to get from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM), which is defined by Philippine Electricity Market Corporation as “a venue for buyers and sellers to trade electricity as a commodity where prices are determined based on demand and supply.”
When asked how much will increase amid the dry spell, Galang said “he cannot determine as of yet.”
“It depends on the contracting strategy of our power utilities where they will get their power,” Galang said.
Despite the possible increase of power rates, Galang assured power supply is enough for Mindanao.
“We have a lot of gross reserve. As of January first week we have around 900 megawatts of reserve .… Based on our projections, even if we reduce the capacity of hydro to 70 percent, even with that, our supply is enough. We don’t have red and yellow alerts as far as power supply in Mindanao is concerned,” Galang said.
He also urged power utilities to have enough electricity available amid the El Niño phenomenon, especially in the months of April to June, where temperatures are mostly high.
“Especially summer months… we should have enough capacity because we expect less from the hydro plants. We should not have scheduled maintenance work during those times,” Galang said. (Ian Carl Espinosa / MindaNews)
