Stop gap mentality

Published by the Visayan Daily Star Publications, Inc.

NINFA R. LEONARDIA Editor-in-Chief & President

CARLA P. GOMEZ Editor CHERYL CRUZ 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

It seems that every time summer rolls around in the Philippines, when heavy air conditioning use and low water supply for hydroelectric plants combine to test the limits of the power industry, state and private sector officials worry and try to come up with stopgap solutions to what has been a chronic problem.

Hydropower-dependent Mindanao is expected to suffer once again as the dry season lowers water levels in the lakes and rivers that run its hydroelectric power plants. An extended dry spell this year brought about by the strong chance of an El Nino weather phenomenon would exacerbate the situation.

Short term solutions, such as adopting a four-day workweek, implementing daylight savings time, postponing scheduled maintenance activities for power plants, or tapping the power reserves of private establishments have been bandied around for years every time this happens. However, our government has yet to fully commit its full attention and resources to solving this chronic problem that a supposedly rising economic tiger should never have allowed to fester.

The Department of Energy is expecting 1,467 additional megawatts of generating capacity to come online in Luzon over the next three years, 429 MW for Visayas, and 920 MW in Mindanao but the question is: will that be enough, will the additional power be affordable, and is the power generation effort being sustained?

As the DOE and the Aquino administration, that is already far into the second half of its six-year mandate, scrambles to stabilize the supply of electric power to the country, we hope that the patience and cooperation they been asking from us year after year will be repaid by a marked and consistent improvement in the availability, quality, and cost of electricity for everybody in this country.

Filipinos are known to be a resilient and tolerant people but for something as critical to modern living as electricity, we have to demand long term and permanent solutions that will eliminate this problem for good, not stopgap solutions that will just tide us over until rainy season comes.*