DAVAO CITY (PIA) -- Mindanao will have sufficient power supply despite the looming threat of El Niño, which was forecast to peak within the first half of 2024, an official of the Department of Energy said.

“With the projected effect ng El Niño in our power supply, we are not yet seeing any deficiency, red alerts, yellow alerts, and problems as far as power supply in Mindanao is concerned,” said Darwin Galang, section senior science research specialist under the Electric Power Industry Management Section of the Department of Energy (DOE) – Mindanao Field Office.

From the simulation that the DOE has conducted to anticipate the effects of El Niño, Galang revealed that even with a 70 percent reduction in the capacity of all hydropower plants in Mindanao, no deficiencies or problems in the power supply were observed.

happening in Mindanao, Galang said the incident was an “isolated case,” explaining that the geographical situation of the area contributed to worsening the power outage problem in the area.

He said the DOE is ready to respond whenever there are technical issues in some power plants in Mindanao that can cause power outages.

“So technically, we can restore naman as long as okay atoang protection coordination sa atoang system para ma-isolate ang fault nga didto lang mapalong and makatabang ang other parts sa Mindanao og supply sa katong nawala nga portion (So technically, we can restore it as long as our protection coordination in the system is okay in order to isolate the fault and make power outages occur only in the affected area, and other parts ofMindanao can help in supplying to those affected areas,” he added.

As to the occasional power outages across Mindanao, Galang said that these could happen at any time, noting that factors such as transmission facilities, and distribution systems, among others, can inevitably interrupt the electricity supply chain on the island. (ASO/PIA-XI/Thumbnail photo from NGCP)