SILAY CITY -- An electric power gap of 100 megawatts will appear in the Visayas 2009, President Gloria Arroyo said yesterday.

The Korean Electric Power Company project in Cebu will come in only in 2010 with 200 megawatts, she said, so five power barges of 100 megawatts will be on standby to fill in the gap.

"But the real solution is to privatize ASAP as is where is the geothermal power plants in Oriental Negros, Southern Leyte, Albay and Sorsogon so that the private sector can expand their capacity before 2009," she said in her speech at an Infrastructure and Investment Conference on the Central Philippines Super Region at the New Bacolod-Silay Airport here.

"With the successful privatization of PNOC-EDC, the development of new geothermal power resources has gained additional momentum. It is attractive enough for the private sector so that the government need not be the one to spend," she said.*CPG

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