Key Takeaways:
- AboitizPower recognizes Cebu’s increasing power demand and persistent power needs.
- Power outages in Cebu have impacted businesses in the region, while the Visayas grid has experienced a record surge in demand.
- AboitizPower is set to expand the capacity of their current coal plant facility to address the area’s need for power.
- A third coal plant is set for construction by 2025, with a target completion date by 2028.
- With support from the local government, and the right investments from private and power generation companies, Cebu Island can be optimistic that it will no longer experience power shortages in the near future.
Central Visayas is one of the country’s 17 fastest-growing economic regions in 2023, with a cumulative growth rate of 7.3%. Thanks to Cebu’s solid infrastructure and thriving industries such as tourism and business process outsourcing (BPO), the region attracts investments and contributes to our country’s GDP. A region that grows this rapidly requires sufficient power to run and keep winning the race.
A region with its sights set on expanding booming business and thriving industries comes with power challenges that may set progress back, not only for Metro Cebu, for the region’s other key economic hubs such as Mandaue, Lapu-Lapu, and Cebu City. Businesses in Cebu have reported an average of three to four power outages lasting between one to two hours per week. The Visayas grid encountered an unprecedented record-high surge at 2,525 megawatts.
Ronaldo Ramos, chief operating officer for operated assets of the AboitizPower Thermal Business Group said that this signaled a “clear and significant upward trend in electricity consumption” in his talk during the “Good Design, Good Business Summit” of the Cebu Business Months (CBM) on June 14.
Ramos said that an overloaded power system struggling to meet increasing power demand has caused frequent yellow and red alerts, and that it is crucial to address the unsteady power supply in Cebu and Central Visayas that may prevent the region from achieving its full economic growth potential.
It’s clear that with a fast-rising economy’s like Metro Cebu’s, sufficient power must be ensured, a challenge that AboitizPower is prepared to address. Ramos cited several significant steps.
Currently, Aboitiz Power Corp. operates a 340-megawatt (MW) Therma Visayas Inc. (TVI) coal plant in Toledo City in the western Cebu region. AboitizPower is set to expand the capacity of the plant by 150 MW to address the area’s need for steady and sufficient power.
The third coal plant in Toledo City is planned to start construction by 2025, with a target completion date set for 2028.
Ramos shared more updates on the current project. According to him, TVI is securing bids from various equipment suppliers, as well as awaiting the environmental compliance certificate from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), and system impact study from the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP).
“Our diverse energy portfolio affirms our belief that there is no one-size-fits-all solution, nor does any single organization hold all the answers and solutions,” Ramos said. “Together we possess the power to shape a future where we can proudly say we played a part in it.”
To support this, Acting Cebu City Mayor Alvin Garcia said that he believes that power shortages in the city will no longer be experienced in the near future. He adds that the region needs to attract and invite the right investments from private and power generation companies, and to allow these to expand their capacity to supply power in the Cebu island.