The absence of a power plant in Bohol has been pointed out as the reason the province struggles to restore power when the source from Leyte gets cut off.
It should be remembered that plans for an in-land power plant were hatched by the Bohol Energy Development Advisory Group (BEDAG) during the time of then Gov. Edgar Chatto, now first district congressman, according to a post of Chatto’s staff Leah Marchil Sumampong.
In her post, she narrated how the BEDAG was formed as an offshoot of the power problems brought by super typhoon Yolanda in 2013.
The BEDAG is a group composed of representatives from the local government units (LGU), national government agencies (NGA), distribution utilities (DU), transmission companies, private sector, and civil society organizations (CSO).
The BEDAG’s task is to create short, medium and long-term plans to address the power situation in Bohol, which is reliant on power imported from other provinces.
The BEDAG was successful in coming up with plans for a non-coal power plant in Bohol, with a winning bidder that has been identified.
The future power plant is slated to be operational by 2024, Sumampong narrated in her post.
Moreover, Sumampong said that the BEDAG came up with the Bohol Island Power Development Plan, which in turn established the One Bohol Power consortium among the DUs for joint power supply planning and procurement, leading to reduced power rates for Bohol consumers.
The stationing of Power Barge 104 in Ubay is also a result of the actions made by the BEDAG to cushion any power situation issues that impacts Boholanos, especially in the aftermath of a calamity.
The BEDAG also succeeded in pursuing the Cebu-Bohol Interconnection Project whose submarine cable project broke ground in Maribojoc last year.
Sumampong decided to share these pieces of information to help the people realize that the solutions to Bohol’s power problems were created years ago and now in the verge of being implemented.
The issue on a power plant surfaced anew after Bohol remains generally without power, as only few consumers already have electricity, with the power from Leyte expected to be delivered into the province by April 2022.