NAAWAN, Misamis Oriental (MindaNews/ 11 May) — On February 27, 2014, at around 3 a.m., the whole island of Mindanao was swept by a massive unannounced brownout that lasted for hours.
The circuit breaker of Agus I hydroelectric power plant in Baloi, Lanao del Norte, accordingly, tripped, causing power outage that cascaded to Agus 2 and to the other four power plants along the Agus River. The other power generators in the National Power Corporation (NPC) Network, to include that of the Pulangi River hydropower plant in Maramag, Bukidnon, and the German coal-fired Steag State Power plant in Villanueva, Misamis Oriental, subsequently tripped, too, and went offline. The tripping phenomenon damaged a number of power generators and depleted to very low level the supply of energy.
From then on, the power situation of the entire island has not returned to normal. To date, many of the power generators within the NPC power complex are still undergoing repairs and thus are unable to operate fully. This accounts for the deficit of some 300 MW of electric supply in the entire island.
Thus, a punishing rotational brownout that lasts from 7 – 10 hours a day is now experienced everywhere. Needless to say, the power outage has inconvenienced everyone. It is hurting business most, causing a loss estimated at P30M/hour.
But as to what really caused the mother of all brownouts on February 27, 2014, no one until now has a categorical explanation.[]/a> with |||
Lake Lanao was declared by then President Corazon Aquino as a watershed reservation on 26 February 1992 through Presidential Proclamation 871 to ensure protection of forest cover and water yield for the hydropower plants, irrigation and domestic use.
The proclamation was followed by Memorandum Order 412 dated 25 March 1992 creating the Lake Lanao Watershed Protection and Development Council to implement the proclamation, headed no less than the Secretary of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, and with such members as the President of the National Power Corporation, Mindanao State University President, Governor of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, and the Chair of the NGO, Save Lake Lanao Movement (SALAM), among others. The only accomplishment, however, of the Council was in coming up with the Lake Lanao Development Integrated Plan in 2003. It failed its mandate and has not arrested the degradation of the Lake and its environs.
Lake Lanao faces a dry future. If nothing is aggressively done to save and seriously protect the lake, Mindanao will continue to grope in the dark in years to come. (MindaViews is the opinion section of MindaNews. William R. Adan, Ph.D., was a research and extension worker, professor and the first chancellor of the Mindanao State University at Naawan, Misamis Oriental. He was a British Council fellow and trained in 1994 at Sheffield University, United Kingdom, on Participatory Planning and Environmentally Responsible Development. Upon retirement, he served as national consultant to the ADB-DENR project on integrated coastal resource management. He is the immediate past president of the MSU Alumni Association)
