Ruffy Magbanua OF the five “presidentiables,” none of them has the balls to include in their platform of promises one of the most pressing problems Mindanao is into  trouble through the years and that is all about  power blackouts. While Luzon and Visayas have been blessed with abundant supply of electricity 24/7, Mindanao, pictured as the food basket of the country, has always been gasping for breath every time blackouts occur, a never ending saga of power lack. The source of 40 percent of the country’s food requirements,  Mindanao is home to a quarter of the  more than 100 million people with about 13 million registered voters. The second largest island of the country has long been suffering from periodic power outages for years because, according to Napocor,  its hydroelectric power plants  are aging and cannot anymore operate during dry months. Worst, the summer heat caused by the El Nino phenomenon has already reached an all-time high, and there appears no signs of precious rain in sight. The power supply of the island is largely dependent on hydroelectricity sourced out from Lake Lanao in Marawi City and Pulangi River in Bukidnon. Here in  Cagayan de Oro, rotating blackouts are back, and as expected, hurting business and households with the drying up of Lake Lanao as the usual excuse. With the campaign fever going gaga all the way to the May 9 national elections, the current power crisis in Mindanao requires national attention, and  Malacañang, for God’s sake, must take the initiative pronto because ignoring it would only mean the collapse of peace and order in general and the failure of the national elections in particular. As of this writing, the Mindanao grid has a load capacity of 1,407 megawatts, of which 1,383 mw  can be delivered during peak hours, leaving a power reserve of only 24mw. Luzon has a power reserve of over 1,369 mw while Visayas has 307 mw. The scorching heat of the dry summer months has brought down the water level in both Pulangi River and Lake Lanao, thus, affecting the water supply for six of Mindanao’s existing hydroelectric power plants and resulting in power shortage. This situation has been further aggravated with the worsening deforestation of watersheds and the siltation of river systems. The only plants available to cover the shortfall in Mindanao are the power barges of Napocor. Unless these are used, the blackout problem in Mindanao will continue to aggravate, placing the whole island in an uncertain situation  ahead of the national elections. What about the Pulangui IV hydroelectric plant in Bukidnon? A complete rehabilitation must be done  to allow this power facility to be back to its old glory of supplying 100+ mw to the Mindanao grid. Overheard as well that the Electric Power Industry Reform Act or Epira  is being considered for review. Unfortunately, this sounds more like a campaign promise. A merry, nay, sorry-goound political stunt. On a positive note, Mindanao power consumers are assured of adequate power supply by 2019, when the grid’s system capacity is expected to hit more than 3,000 megawatts, according to the  Department of Energy (DOE).  That would be fine, good to hear that,  but how sincere this projection is,  this remains to be seen. Though this serves as a welcome development for Mindanao, consumers would have to pay the price for the adequate supply of power delivered to their door steps.  Obviously, electricity  is not cheap, and therefore there is always a cost to the development and generation of power supply. On one hand, the Leyte-Mindanao Interconnection Project, envisioned to enable Mindanao to share capacities with the Luzon and Visayas grids is a classic example of a government project gone to the wilds. After all the measures that have been put in place ahead of summer, the DOE has accepted its  weakness, finally:  it has ran out on government interventions designed to mitigate the electric supply shortfall in Mindanao. If ever there will be a massive power outage during the canvassing of votes in the May 9 elections, suspicions are inevitable  — that something is being done illegally with the results of the votes. There are other power issues that will linger long after PNoy leaves Malacañang and shall be the immediate concern of who’s gonna be the next to occupy the highest position of the land: the fate of the Agus and Pulangui IV hydropower complexes, the interconnection of Mindanao to the national grid, and the power mix  of fossil fuel and renewable energy sources. Also of great concern is the Epira which mandates the government to leave the power industry to the private sector, but until now, the Agus and Pulangi hydroelectric plants, which supply more than half of Mindanao’s power requirement, remain in government control. On the other hand, the Association of Mindanao Rural Electric Cooperatives insists that the government retain the Agus-Pulangi facilities by creating the Mindanao Power Corp. to level up the electricity rates, lower than in Luzon and the Visayas. This dream of creating the MPC is still pending in the old Congress. Maybe, the new Congress will be able to act decisively on the matter. In the meantime, the merry-goound of blackouts continue as the government struts its power development plans for Mindanao. Indeed, it’s a   sorry-goound kind of thing in the power sector. Sigh. E-mail: ruffy44_ph2000@yahoo.com