DIGOS CITY, Davao del Sur, May 08 (PIA) – The Davao del Sur Electric Cooperative (DASURECO) has announced Wednesday that it has not implemented rotational power interruption amidst the power crisis situation in Mindanao.
In its Power Forum with the media on May 7, DASURECO has assured that it has sufficient power supply as of the moment to provide for its over a hundred thousand customers from the provinces of Davao del Sur and Davao Occidental.
DASURECO’s Institutional Services Department head Ferdinand Canastra said the present power supply is a little more than enough to meet the demand of 40 megawatts for the two provinces.
The said provinces are among those areas that were able to mitigate the impact of power supply deficiency attributed to low water levels during summer time and the forced outage of the STEAG Coal-Fired Power Plant which caused long rotational brownouts across Mindanao.
With good forecasting early last year based on data and outage experiences during summer time since 2010, Canastra said the electric cooperative’s management and board of directors were able to address the previous energy deficiency pegged at 12-13MW.
One of the short term solutions was entering into a power supply agreement (PSA) with Alsons Energy Development Corporation in December last year for the rental of diesel-fueled modular generator sets with a capacity of 15MW until 2016.
“We just make sure that the generator is operated only during peak hours or when necessary, and not in full capacity,” Canastra stated as one of their maintenance efforts.
In March this year, DASURECO has effected its contract with Hedcor, Inc. that provides a capacity of 7MW from its hydro power plant based in Sta. Cruz, Davao del Sur.
Canastra said their other sources of power supply are the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corporation (PSALM Corp) and the Therma Marine Inc., contracted at 12MW capacity each.
He said PSALM has reduced its allocation to 6-8MW since the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) has issued the advisory of critical power situation in Mindanao early this year.
“Despite the decrease from PSALM, our new load capacity (from the generator and Hedcor) still suffice to address the deficiency,” he added.
However, the DASURECO official explained the other underlying effect of utilizing the 15MW generator set and contracting with the private power company, which points to the rate impact.
“Convenience has its cost,” Canastra stated as he added that their customers must be prepared for an increase in their bill starting next month, though he added that the hike is minimal.
He disclosed a rate impact pegged at P1.17 per kilowatt hour.
“This is why we are intensifying our information dissemination to explain to our members about this development,” Canastra said, adding that they have tapped the local radio stations in Digos City and towns of Bansalan and Malita as venue for the information drive.
DASURECO also utilized district fora and conventions not only to enlighten the consumers about the power situation, but also to encourage them to conserve energy in the workplace and at homes.
Though the electric cooperative is not implementing rotational brownout at present, Canastra said they could not give assurance as to when this would last.
“We could not be sure and avoid any defects from the power plants of our providers,” he said.
DASURECO is serving 337 barangays from 14 municipalities and Digos City of Davao del Sur and Davao Occidental, with around 106,000 members and 126,000 household connections.
This includes Sarangani town, an island municipality and the last frontier of Davao Occidental. (PIA-11/Carina L. Cayon)
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