MANILA, Philippines — The combined factors of supply tightening during the summer months and demand growth have prompted Aboitiz Power Corporation (AP) to transfer its recently-acquired 242-megawatt power barges to Mindanao around June next year.

The proposed transfer sites for one of the barges will either be in Nasipit, Agusan del Norte or Maco, Compostela Valley. It is seen as an “easier-to-accomplish-move” as the company already has its existing 200MW power barges docked here.

In a press statement, the company noted the four barge-mounted power units “will augment the tightening power supply in Mindanao next year.”

The power barges, following the completion of the P2.3 billion purchase deal with sellers East Asia Diesel Power Corporation and Duracom Mobile Corporation, had been placed under subsidiary corporate vehicle Therma Marine Inc.

AP first vice president for Mindanao Affairs Bobby Orig enthused that as the southernmost power grid braces for supply shortages next year, the company will adhere to “its commitment to the people of the island by providing a solution that will ensure that our economic progress will continue.”

The grid was stricken with massive power outages in 2010 because of the El Niño phenomenon. The year 2011 was a bit better, but next year’s scenario is seen more precarious by Mindanao stakeholders especially with no new capacity additions coming in by that time yet.

Orig pointed out that by bringing in the barges in the area, “Mindanao is assured of continuous supply of reliable power.”

It has been emphasized that when the barges are fully operational, they would be able to operate at their full aggregate capacity of 242 megawatts. The units are bunker C-fired diesel plants, which could be pricier than hydro but they will nevertheless ease any apprehension of brownout predicaments until true and permanent solutions for the grid are in place.

The barges when acquired in May this year have already been idled in the past five years. AP though pursued “rehabilitation efforts” on the units to enable them to reach prime output or inch up their generation closer to installed capacities.

There is a tug-of-war as to which technology will aptly meet Mindanao’s power requirements in the short- to the long-term. As the grid braces for fuel diversification on meeting its power needs, coal and solar are being presented as alternatives.

Nevertheless, while coal developers have already started staking capital so they can help contribute to the grid’s supply from 2014 and onward to the next 25 years, solar developers cannot take off with their project plans until subsidies are set clear by the power industry regulator.

The arguments against solar though were that developers are not only batting for expensive feed-in-tariffs (despite the collapse of the global solar market); and they cannot also be relied upon as reliable solution given their intermittent nature of generation; as compared to coal which runs on base load mode.