Northern Mindanao would be most affected if the Mindanao grid collapses due to the bombings of power
transmission towers, the Department of Energy said Friday.
Energy Secretary Zanaida Monsada said Northern Mindanao
would be cut off from its energy supply from the Agus hydro plants but Southern Mindanao would be unaffected as the 300-megawatt
coal-fired power plant of Therma Marine South has been commissioned.
“This will be the scenario we will be facing if the bombing
of transmission towers will continue unabated,” Monsada told reporters during
the inauguration of the coal plant today.
She said the government recognized the gravity of the
situation and has created a task force composed of units from the Philippine
Army and the Philippine National Police to deal with recalcitrant landowners.
Reports said the suspects in the bombings are owners of
lands where the transmission towers pass through, and who are demanding
payments from the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines
President Benigno Aquino III inaugurated the coal
plant in Barangay Binugao, Toril District, Davao City, which is
expected to boost the power supply in southern Mindanao and if distribution is
not affected, throughout the island.
“This plant’s dependable capacity is roughly equivalent to
one-fifth of the Mindanao grid’s highest peak
demand in 2015—and it is already delivering power to areas at the end of the
grid, such as Sarangani, General Santos, and the Zamboanga peninsula,” Aquino
said.
He said his government is studying how to meet the demands
of the landowners.
The NGCP placed the entire Mindanao
grid on yellow alert again the other day after bombing attacks against its
towers in Lanao del Sur continued.
“ROW (right of way) violations, along with bombing attacks,
have become the significant problems for NGCP in Mindanao .
It will be very difficult for us to deliver the available power supply to
distribution utilities if we continue to encounter these problems,” the NGCP
said in a statement.
Monsada said President Aquino has directed agencies how to
respond to the demands of the landowners.
http://www.mindanews.com/top-stories/2016/01/08/attacks-on-transmission-towers-endanger-power-supply-in-normi/
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