Manila Bulletin: Editorial: How much will it cost us?
September 27, 2014
The choice before us is clear. We will have a power shortage by summer next year, estimated at 300 megawatts, which means brownouts for residents and periodic shutdowns for factories. Or, if Congress grants President Aquino’s call for emergency power to enter into contracts for additional supply with private power producers, we will have to pay for this additional power at higher than the usual costs.
Under Section 71 of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA), the government may contract for additional power from provisional producers. The last time we had a similar situation in this country was in the 1990s when emergency power had to be purchased at a cost which we are still paying today in our electric bills.
Very likely, Congress will approve the emergency power sought by President Aquino. What we want now is an answer to the question: How much shall we pay for this additional power?
Our government planners should also answer other related questions, such as whether the government intends to use the Malampaya Fund for this undertakings as the use of this fund is, under law, supposed to be available for power development. There is talk that the Malampaya fund has already been raided for other purposes, but that will be another story. For now, it is enough if the government will come out with a straightforward plan to solve the coming power shortage, with the use of all available resources, including the Malampaya Fund.
However way we look at it, the impending power shortage reflects on the competence of those in charge of the country’s energy situation. It should never have come to this. Long before there were intimations of a problem, our government officials should have programmed the construction of new power plants. For the availability of power is basic to the economic growth of any country.
After we solve this temporary emergency looming in 2015, the government should turn its attention to the wider problem of providing adequate power for all parts of the country, especially in Mindanao which lags in economic development precisely because of inadequate power for its factories.
