Philippines' Visayas region needs additional supply by 2015

The Visayas grid will need additional power plants to cope with increasing electricity demands in the next three years.

This was shared by Sebastian Lacson, VECO senior vice president and chief operating officer, who said that the current power supply in the region is stable.

He said that the Wholesale Electric Spot Market likewise provides power supply and, thus, "Cebu and the rest of the Visayas region should not have any fears of prolonged brownouts because our baseload supply of power is quite stable in the next two to three years."

VECO serves the cities of Cebu, Mandaue, Talisay and Naga and four municipalities of greater Metro Cebu, that is, Liloan, Consolacion, Minglanillla and San Fernando. Its franchise service covers an area of about 674 square kilometers with an estimated population of 1.73 million.

The Department of Energy's Central Visayas director Antonio Labios alsogave the same assurance, saying Cebu's power supply is good and stable until 2015.

Labios is also ofthe view that Cebu and the Visayas needs additional power plants to accommodate the increasing demands for power by a growing business community and an increasing population in the next three years.

For more.