BANTAYAN SENDS POWER SOS

By: Michelle Joy L. Padayhag February 28,2016 - 10:22 PM

BANTAYAN POWER WOES: The fishing village of Madridejos, Bantayan Island illuminated only by the seating sun during our last visit to document the Tanon Strait for the Oceana Philippines. (CDN PHOTO/TONEE DESPOJO)

The fishing village of Barangay Kawit, Madridejos, Bantayan Island illuminated only by the setting sun. (CDN PHOTO/ TONEE DESPOJO)

With the Holy Week barely a month away and summer just around the corner, officials of Bantayan Island’s tourist-drawing towns raised an alarm over a looming power shortage on the island that is already experiencing daily power interruptions resulting from inadequate power supply from the Bantayan Island Power Corporation (Bipcor).

Santa Fe Mayor Jose Esgana said by phone yesterday that the power interruption in the town is not normal since it does not follow a definite schedule.

“Sometimes power interruption starts in the evening until noon time. The one hour power interruption (promised by Bipcor) has not been followed,” Esgana said in a phone interview.

Almost 20 beach resorts in the town are now using their own generator sets to address the problem, the mayor said.

“The tourism industry might be affected if tourists will know about the power situation here,” Esgana said.

The island is considered as one of Cebu’s top tourism destination, particularly during the Holy Week, because of the fiesta-like atmosphere in the town of Bantayan during Holy Thursday and Good Friday, when the rest of the Catholic world  commemorates the passion and death of Jesus Christ with solemnity.

The unusual practice of eating meat on Good Friday and the procession of life size figures that are mounted on carriages to depict the Station of the Cross, also held  in the evening of Good Friday, have drawn thousands of tourists to the town of Bantayan and its adjoining two other municipalities —- Santa Fe and Madridejos.

Esgana said that for this Holy Week and up to the summer months, they were expecting 10,000 tourist arrivals.

Records from the Department of Tourism in Central Visayas (DOT 7) showed that at least 23,000 tourists  — 18,895 domestic and 5,433 foreign tourists arrived in Sta. Fe from January to October last year.

Santa Fe’s  approximate demand for power is 1.5 megawatts and the brownouts have affected mostly those in the town center, involving about 5,000 households.

In the town of Madridejos, Mayor Salvador dela Fuente said the constant power outages have not only affected their electricity needs but also the town’s water supply to households and establishments since its water system is power dependent.

“Sometimes power interruption reaches to three or four hours. Power generators are used but these (do not have) sufficient (power) to (pump out water from) our deep wells,” Dela Fuente said in a phone interview.

According to Dela Fuente, the power outages have affected all the 9,000 to 10,000 households in his town.

“We hope that this will be solved before the Holy Week. We also have five beach resorts here so we are expecting (tourist) arrivals,” he added.

He said the  power interruption has also affected the construction of a cultural center that the municipal government is building in the town.

Bantayan Mayor Christopher Ian Escario, meanwhile, said he has yet to quantify the effect of the brownout on his town.

Lee Rivera, general manager of  the Bantayan Electric Cooperative, Inc. (Banelco),  which distributes power to the island,  said Bipcor was supposed to provide a total 4.3 megawatts (mw) but could only supply 2.8 mw to the whole island since two of its power generators — a 3-mw unit and a 1.7-mw unit, have both malfunctioned.

Bipcor, a privately run independent power supplier, operates four bunker-fired power generators. It supplies 1.8 mw to Madridejos, 1.5 mw to Santa Fe and one mw to Bantayan.

Rivera said Bipcor has ordered replacement parts from London and South Korea but so far, only the replacement part for the 1.7- mw plant  has arrived from South Korea.

The 1.7-mw plant is now running at 65 percent capacity and it helped shorten the power interruptions but only during daytime or off-peak hours, he explained. This means that there will be power outages at night in some rural parts of the island, particularly during the peak hours from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., when the demand at the town centers is at its highest.

The spare parts for the 3-mw unit are also expected to arrive between March 7 to 10 from London, he added.

Once both plants are fully repaired, “there will be no more rotational brownouts”  on the island, he assured.

Bantayan Island has around 23,000 power consumers,  of which 19,000 are residential. Consumers pay P11 per kilowatt-hour.

Rivera said power demand on Bantayan Island has risen from 4 mw in 2013 to the current demand of 4.5 mw because more investors, mostly commercial establishments, have set up businesses on the island.

Cebu Gov. Hilario Davide III, meanwhile, announced on Sunday that he would be going to Bantayan Island on Tuesday to meet with local officials and other stakeholders and discuss ways to address the power shortage on the island.

Esgana said he would bring to the attention of Davide a proposal of a South Korean firm to set up a power plant on Hilutungan, one of the 16 islets that belong to the Bantayan Island group.

“There are Korean investors who are interested (in operating) an electric (company) cooperative here. If these are renewable energy and environmental friendly, then there is no problem to that,” he added.

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TAGS: Escario, Holy Week, Madridejos, Santa Fe

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