The Mindanao Power Crisis

It has been predicted a decade ago that our country will undergo energy crisis unless the government can’t find a solution to the increasing demand of eletricity. Mindanao was predicted to be the most hit by the power crisis. 

Indeed, Mindanao is greatly affected by lack of available eletricity supply as of the moment. Mindanao is suffering blackout of up to 8 hours a day being rotated accross the island. Mindanao is being supplied by hydro power plants. Fifty percent of its power consumption comes from these plants. And as the country continue to suffer from El Niño, which came way too early for the summer months, water levels in various dams that supply water to these eletric plants were hitting below the normal level. Thus, plants are forced to decrease their operation down to 80 percent or shut down thoroughly.

We were glad that the Iligan Diesel Power Plant which can generate 35 megawatts has been commissioned back by NAPOCOR. If not, Northern Mindanao will suffer more than 8 hours rotating brownouts.

The scenario is actually similar to the 90’s were rotating blackout was also in placed. The only difference now is more people especially the younger generation can’t live without their cellular phones and access to internet. It was as if they are not in touch with the civilization. But this is never a big deal to me. What worries me is if this phenomenon will lead to interruption of water supply. That would be hell!

The moral of this is we need to harness renewable energy. Mindanao is a strategic place for investment in this kind of energy-generation endeavor. We can harness the solar, wave, wind, etc energy sources. But we always had a problem in convincing people to invest in our island due to the bad image that are being paraded in the tri-media. This election time is a good venue for us to change the paradigm and perception of people regarding our beloved Mindanao. 

Mindanaons strongly believe that we are big force in the country and we can easily shape or shift how the country runs. To borrow the anecdote of one of the leaders in Region 10, he illustrates how powerful Mindanao is in breaking and unbreaking the course of our country. He said that there were only three big things that happened in our country last year. First, the naming of CNN Hero of the Year; second, the crowing of Manny Pacquiao; and lastly, the Maguindanao Massacre. Of the three big things, two came from Mindanao. Pacman brought the Philippines to greater heights in the eyes of the world. On the other hand, the Maguindanao Massacre, pull us back to the labyrinth of hostilities. And the third thing that happened to the Philippines is what keeping away investors from investing in Mindanao.

We our in great hope that the next president will focus on strenghtening peace in Mindanao and give priority on resolving the energy crisis. With power security, like a grease in the car’s wheels/gears, progress will smoothly follow.