WHILE Mindanao is recovering from power supply deficiency and possibly will have an excess in the coming years, the Interim Mindanao Electricity Market (Imem), created purposely to ease off the island’s power woes, might “take on a different form.”
Romeo Montenegro, director of investment promotions and public affairs of the Mindanao Development Authority (Minda), during the Mindanao Power Stakeholders Dialogue earlier this month at the Marco Polo Hotel Davao, said the Imem was created for “a market for deficiency.”
The Imem was implemented to draw out around 150 megawatts (MW) to 200 MW from uncontracted capacities of power generators and embedded capacities of some distribution utilities to be sold outside of its franchise areas so that some electric cooperatives that are in need of supply, on a intermittent basis, would be able to tap the available capacity.
Imem was implemented on December 3, 2014 but a market intervention was implemented after the Mindanao-wide blackout in February this year.
“But now, we are heading towards a new regime of possible excess of [power] supply in Mindanao, the Imem may probably take a different shape already which is moving toward a market of competition because we are no longer seeing a market for deficiency,” Montenegro said.
Based on the Mindanao Power Situation Outlook of the Mindanao Power Monitoring Committee (MPMC), the Mindanao grid will have a projected available capacity of 2,208 MW in 2015, which is more than the projected peak demand of 1,583 MW.
Similarly, from 2016 to 2020 the grid will have more supply than demand providing the island an excess of power supply.
“We are looking at the possible excess supply in Mindanao and therefore the Imem will take a new shape,” Montenegro said.
Published in the Sun.Star Davao newspaper on September 16, 2014.
