Where’s the urgency?

Published by the Visayan Daily Star Publications, Inc.

NINFA R. LEONARDIA Editor-in-Chief & President

CARLA P. GOMEZ Editor GUILLERMO TEJIDA III Desk Editor PATRICK PANGILINAN Busines Editor NIDA A. BUENAFE Sports Editor RENE GENOVE Bureau Chief, Dumaguete MAJA P. DELY Advertising Coordinator

CARLOS ANTONIO L. LEONARDIA Administrative Officer

Earlier last year,  Energy Secretary Jose Rene Almendras warned that with the growth rates Negros Occidental was experiencing, it could face a serious power shortage by 2014 or 2015 if it does not start building its own power plant soon. Our dependency on the submarine cables that transmit power to the province was also raised as a concern because of the possibility of it being overloaded by the increased power demands in the future and concerns of the province’s vulnerability to a severe power outage should those cables be damaged somehow.

However, because the Department of Energy has up to now not yet acted on the cancellation of inutile service contracts that have been granted by the DOE to firms that have not even been seen in the province, Negros stands to lose the serious investors who have shown willingness to take on those service contracts and start the process of building hydroelectric power plants in the province. These service contracts that the DOE has not yet cancelled, for one reason or another, have prevented the serious investors in hydroelectric power plants from conducting detailed engineering studies on Negros rivers.

The power plants targeted for construction by interested parties are: a 40 megawatt hydroelectric power plant in Bago City, a 15 megawatt plant in Carol-an, Kabankalan City, and a 12-megawatt cascading plant in Sagay City. If the investors that have been waiting in the wings, waiting for the DOE to act on the problem of the unused service contracts, are serious and truly capable of building and operating such facilities, those sources of green power could help prevent the looming power crisis,  as well as decrease our dependence on the submarine cables and power plants outside the province.

If the threat of a power crisis is a serious problem that falls directly under the responsibilities of the DOE, then, shouldn’t we see more action from the DOE regarding those questionable service contracts that have been holding up other serious investors from getting to work and building additional power plants that have the advantage of being environmentally friendly at the same time?  Hopefully,  Secretary Almendras can not only give us an update on this matter soon, he can also be a major player in this quest to prevent  a disaster from happening.*