Cebu Needs More Power Plants Amid Thinning Reserves, Says NGCP

Power demands in the Visayas specifically Cebu are drastically increasing and new power plants are needed now even more, officials from the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) told reporters in an interview.

Although Cebu has enough power supply, the reserves are getting thin and the demand is rising as more industries and business activities flourish in the Province.

The business sector is also concerned about the rising cost of power in Cebu in 2024 without new in-land power plants.

Last Monday, December 18, the Visayas grid only had 241MW of power reserves, the lowest compared to the ones in Luzon and Mindanao.

Luzon has 2,532MW of power reserves while Mindanao has 960MW of reserves.

The entire Visayas grid has a generating capacity of 2,449MW while demands are pegged at 2,209MW. Cebu Island accounts for half of the region’s total demands.

Metro Cebu alone needs at least 500MW daily or about half of the Province’s demands.

NGCP Assistant Vice President and Head for Public Affairs, Atty. Cynthia Perez-Alabanza said additional inland power plants are important to bolster the existing capacity, establish reserves, and meet the anticipated boom in investments and population.

Alabanza noted that power consumption continues to rise with the full re-opening of the economy after Covid-19 and this entails that “Cebu needs more power plants.”

She said that even during the pandemic there was even a rise in power demand. “Now, with the economy fully reopening, we are witnessing a substantial surge in power requirements.”

“All roads lead to Cebu when we talk about power consumption in the Visayas,” said Alabanza.

NGCP network operations senior manager for Visayas systems operations, Abner G. Bardoquillo, also said Cebu needs to build more “in-land” power plants for it to be self-sufficient in terms of supply.

With the rising growth in investments, and population, Cebu has to generate its power supply even without relying upon outside-of-province sources, more importantly during emergencies.

The Department of Energy and the NGCP have previously announced that Cebu is among the main sites for large generation capacity additions.

Before the pandemic, the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) identified the potential of Cebu for new investments in heavy and extractive industries.

This includes the industries of shipbuilding and other allied activities in the western seaboard of Cebu; car manufacturing and car parts manufacturing; aerospace parts; resource-based industries; and fabricated metals.

The Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI) is also concerned about the high cost of power a priority for 2024, endorsing this concern to the national government.

Former CCCI president Felix Taguiam emphasized that resolving Cebu’s power cost challenges hinges on the province’s ability to independently meet its energy demands.

Taguiam suggested that if Cebu can achieve self-sufficiency in power generation, it could ease the issue of costly electricity. (ZAG)