The growing power crisis in the Central Visayas province of Siquijor has resulted in the declaration of a state of calamity, an official said Friday.
Lawyer Dale Tudtud, provincial administrator and concurrent provincial tourism officer, told the Philippine News Agency in an interview that the inadequate power supply in Siquijor needs immediate intervention as it has affected all sectors.
The power outages also result in water supply interruptions and disrupted services in banks, government offices and business establishments, he said.
The state of calamity declaration was announced on Wednesday after the Provincial Disaster Risk- Reduction & Management Office passed a resolution for its recommendation.
Tudtud said the Sangguniang Panlalawigan unanimously approved on Tuesday the PDRRMO recommendation. However, Siquijor Gov. Jake Villa has to sign an executive order next week.
Tudtud said the declaration of a state of calamity will allow the provincial government to use its quick response fund to mitigate the power crisis, such as the procurement of generators.
Since September last year, the island started having more brownouts that lasted 10 hours or longer with the power provider, the Province of Siquijor Electric Cooperative Inc. (ProSiElCo) and the power supplier, Siquijor Island Power Corp. “passing the blame between themselves,” he said.
“But we leave that to them as it is their problem because they have signed an agreement. On our end, we just want to make sure that the people have enough power supply,” Tudtud said.
The provincial government is asking the National Electrification Administration to intervene and provide Siquijor with at least an additional two megawatts of power to compensate for the deficit.
In recent days, power outages across the province would last up to 10 or more hours, with Prosielco citing reasons like breakdown of generators or operational maintenance activities, Tudtud said.
The current needs of Siquijor would ideally run up to nine MW on peak days, but with the current situation, the island sometimes has less five MW distributed to electric consumers, he added.
Meanwhile, the Department of Energy, in a statement released to the meida on Friday, said it is conducting an investigation and a meeting with the Energy Regulatory Commission, NEA, National Power Corp., and the National Transmission Corp. to address the power supply issues in Siquijor.
“The activity aimed to assess the current power supply situation, validate reports of recurring power interruptions, and identify both immediate and long-term solutions,” the statement said.
After confirming the validity of consumer complaints on the power crisis, the DOE underscored “the urgent need for coordinated and sustained action.”
A joint assessment of the said agencies “determined that a combination of technical, operational, and regulatory issues is preventing the full utilization of Sipcor’s generating capacity.”
The DOE said that while Sipcor has an installed capacity of 11.580 MW, only 8.816 MW is currently contracted to the Prosielco.
“These limitations have contributed to recurring power interruptions, exposing a gap between the available supply and the actual demand in the province which already reached 10.51 MW.”
Some DOE recommendations include fully utilizing Sipcor’s installed capacity or sourcing additional generation from other potential providers.
To resolve this, the DOE recommended that Prosielco, with the guidance of NEA, update its power supply procurement plan and distribution development plan to initiate procurement for additional power supply, subject to review and approval.
As part of the agreed measures, NEA was also tasked to coordinate with the Palawan Electric Cooperative for the transfer of a two-MW modular generator set to Siquijor, the statement said. (Judy F. Partlow)
