By Digna Banzon/PNA
DAVAO CITY – Mindanao needs an additional 300 megawatts in the next three years if the island is to cope with its growing economy.
This was according to Arturo Milan, president of the Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Inc. (DCCCII) and currently adviser of the Mindanao of Aboitiz Equity Ventures (AEV), who projected that the next three years would be crucial for Mindanao to beef up its power supply.
With Mindanao’s economy growing at eight percent each year, Milan said the current excess power supply will no longer be sufficient by 2022 if no additional source will be generated.
“The industry projection currently is about 800 to 1,000 megawatts in Mindanao but assuming that there will still be no interconnection with Visayas, this will just be consumed by the internal growth,” he said on Monday.
However, he said small capacities of renewable energy are already in the pipeline that will help augment Mindanao’s power supply.
He said the Davao City-based Therma South, Inc. (TSI), an Aboitiz company, is still operating at 300 megawatts from its total capacity of 600 megawatts.
He said unless there are new investments, “we can increase the capacity and we are looking at the right time when it is needed”.
