Power Generation

Cebu leaders demand reliable power to uplift province

November 15, 2024

Public and private stakeholders in Cebu said that the island needs more power capacity to sustain its economic upswing, with the province’s top government official highlighting the criticality of embedded power plants in addressing power interruptions.

Cebu and the Central Visayan economy recorded the fastest growth rate in the Philippines at 7.3% in 2023, prompting Cebu Governor Gwendolyn F. Garcia to make the case that the province has to be “very serious” about generating more power capacity in-island.

“If we did not have our own embedded power [right here in our island], we would have been at the mercy of [power imports from] Tongonan, Leyte,” she said during the Freeman's “Powering Cebu” business forum, noting how when blackouts hit Tongonan before, Cebu experienced longer blackouts due to the need for grid synchronization.

“If that blackout had lasted for four hours, it took eight hours before we could synchronize. This underlines the necessity of having our own embedded ‘on-the-island’ power plant,” she added.

In the same event, Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry Jay Y. Yuvallos said that the industries of manufacturing, hospitality, information technology, and business process management — all energy intensive industries — will be Cebu’s growth drivers.

“The major input is always power… If power is unreliable and [unsustained], then the risk becomes so high,” he pointed out, adding how more or less 200,000+ families will graduate from poverty in Central Visayas if energy security and economic growth are sustained.

“The vision of the Chamber is to be the engine of Cebu’s business growth towards global competitiveness,” Yuvallos added. “Our value chain in most of the industries here in Cebu extends towards, not only the Central Visayas, but Visayas in general and to a certain extent in Mindanao.”

Meanwhile, Hotel Resort and Restaurant Association of Cebu Inc. President Alfred M. Reyes echoed the need for an energy secure Cebu, highlighting how it would help the island’s tourism industry.

“More or less in the next three years, we are looking at somewhere between 2,000 to 4,000 additional rooms in [the tri-cities of] Cebu,” he said. “During summer, we’ve encountered rotational blackouts, and we all know that not all hotels are equipped with generators that run 24/7.”

“Energy is something that you cannot compromise. Once you’re out of energy, automatically your guests will move to properties that can provide 24/7 electricity,” he explained.

The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines said that Cebu’s total plant capacity today is 1,123 megawatts against a peak demand of 1,223 that was recorded in May 2024. Cebu currently augments any shortfall through interconnections to Luzon and Mindanao, with the island also serving as the connection hub for power imports to enter the rest of the Visayas.

With peak demand in the Visayas increasing from 2,464 megawatts in 2023 to 10,678 megawatts in 2050, as projected in the Philippine Energy Plan, Cebu’s power demand already exceeds the national average year-on-year.

To help address the situation, Aboitiz Power Corporation (AboitizPower) said that it is upgrading its 340-megawatt Therma Visayas (TVI) baseload power plant in Toledo, Cebu to a smart power plant.

“In AboitizPower, if you go to TVI, that is one of the two power plants that we have that will have a digital twin. We’re trying to make it as efficient and as reliable a plant can be,” said AboitizPower Thermal Group Chief Engineering and Projects Officer Don Paulino. “We’re trying to lower the cost of generating power by making the operations of our facilities more efficient and effective.”

In May 2024, AboitizPower partnered with Thailand-based company REPCO NEX Industrial Solutions to integrate digital twins in TVI and the Therma South power plant in Davao City. Digital twins are virtual replicas of industrial assets that can mimic operational processes and systems, as well as detect faults and glitches earlier and in real time, all within a safe virtual environment.