DAVAO Light and Power Company (DLPC), the third biggest private electric utility in the country, said there is more than enough supply in the southern Philippine mainland to meet higher demand during the hot, dry months until May.
The Aboitiz Power Corp. subsidiary said its franchise area covering Davao City and parts of neighboring Davao del Norte province will not experience supply cuts due to power shortage.
“Davao City will not experience any shortages in the coming months, especially summer months. We are safe,” DLPC President and Chief Operating Officer Rodger S. Velasco said during the Kapihan sa PIA media forum.
He assured that brownouts will only be due to unforeseen incidents.
“Those are emergency interruptions that are beyond our control, (like) a toppled post, foreign objects perching our lines,” he said.
Mr. Velasco said the opening of the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) in Mindanao has further allowed for sufficient as well as cheaper supply.
The Mindanao WESM was formally launched in February. The electricity trading platform will eventually be merged with the national WESM once the Mindanao-Visayas grid interconnection is completed.
DLPC started buying power through WESM in January, which now accounts for 30% of its supply, according to Mr. Velasco.
“Current situation in WESM is much cheaper versus fossil-based fuel plants so we are buying more from WESM,” he said.
The DLPC official also noted that the Mindanao grid has a capacity of about 3,000 megwatts (MW) while peak demand is 2,000 MW, leaving an average daily surplus of 1,000 MW.
Arturo M. Milan, adviser for Mindanao of Aboitiz Equity Ventures, Inc., said other parts of southern Philippines continue to experience rotational brownouts as distributors, which are mostly electric cooperatives, depend on their contracted supply.
“What really happens now is that amid the excess supply, there are areas with rotating brownouts, especially among the electric cooperatives… This is a problem of contracting. Also a problem on reliability of their service,” Mr. Milan said in mixed Visayan and English.
DLPC covers an area with a population of about 2.2 million.
The company said it had 470,868 customers as of December 2022, with recorded peak demand of 472 MW. — Maya M. Padillo