Why planned power boost to Cebu Island welcomed and needed
MANDAUE CITY, Cebu — A business leader in Cebu’s industrial and logistics hub welcomes a firm’s plan to give the island a power boost with its planned expansion and construction of its power facilities.
Mark Ynoc, incoming president of the Mandaue Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MCCI), told CDN Digital in a message, why the planned power boost would be welcomed and needed, especially in Mandaue City, which is an industrial and logistics hub.
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MCCI reax to planned power boost
Ynoc pointed out that whole island of Cebu was also driven by tourism.
This means that Cebu island will need a lot of power to sustain this industry.
This is the MCCI president’s reaction to the 169 megawatts (MW) expansion project of Therma Visayas Inc. (TVI) that is based in Barangay Bato in Toledo City in western Cebu.
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Power and stable electricity supply
“In that note, reliable and dependable electricity supply is quite a vital element in our recovery, in balancing the supply chain, and more especially in preparation for the forecasted arrival of investments and increase in population growth,” he told CDN Digital.
He emphasized the need of having stable power for Cebu’s economy to continue its growth and the negative effects if power would be disrupted.
“Unimaginable damages normally strike the economy as well when there are power disturbances. If there is a serious and dire demand for power then we definitely need additional infrastructure to strengthen generation capacity,” he said.
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More power always better
Meanwhile, Charles Kenneth Co, president of the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCCI), said that more power would always be better.
Co said this in an earlier inquirer.net article as a reaction to the TVI project.
However, Co told CDN Digital in a message that they still did not know much about this project.
He also said that they had set a meeting with Aboitiz to get an overview of their plans.
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System Impact Study
The 169 MW expansion project of TVI that is based in Barangay Bato in Toledo City was one of the 21 projects issued by the Department of Energy (DOE) for system impact study to the National Grid Corp last December 2023.
SIS is an engineering study that will assess the impact of the planned interconnection or integration of a power facility to primarily determine if the load can be accommodated by the current capacity of the transmission system without having to compromise the safety and reliability of the grid.
TVI’s plan to construct a third coal-fired baseload plant for Cebu is believed to be crucial as this will ensure steady and affordable supply of electricity to meet the growing demand of the province.
In the absence of additional power sources, Cebu faces the risk of having inadequate power supply, which will negatively impact businesses, industries, and the lives of the Cebuanos.
TVI, a joint venture between Aboitiz Power Corp. and Vivant Corp., currently operates the 340 MW (two units at 170 MW each) Toledo power plant.
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Power reserves
As of January 2024, the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) said that the Visayas region has available generating capacity of 2,454 MW and a system peak demand of 2,153 MW. It now has a 239 MW in power reserves.
Luzon and Mindanao have power reserves of 3,187 MW and 817 MW, respectively.
But the DOE is projecting that the electricity sales in the Visayas grid will expand at an annual average growth rate (AAGR) of seven percent between 2020 to 2040, with peak demand ranging between 8,827 to 8,982 megawatts (MW) by 2040.
The province of Cebu, according to NGCP’s projections, will account for most of this demand at 4,244 MW by 2040, or about 47-48 percent, a massive growth from just 1,151 MW in 2021. | With Inquirer report, Mary Rose Sagarino and Pia Piquero
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