Philippines SMEs Crippled By Energy Shortages

Posted on 03. Jun, 2010 by Ross in Asia, Energy Shortages

Recent power outages brought about by the lack of supply for the Philippines’ Cebu-Negros-Panay Grid have had a crippling effect on local small and medium businesses (SMEs) which lack their own emergency generators.

Two-hour power outages hit much of Cebu yesterday due to the huge deficit in supply, which reached 260MW. Local power plants are either not generating power due to preventive maintenance, or are producing less than their capacity, whilst high temperatures have escalated demand even further.

The result is extensive brownouts which have decimated SMEs, which make up over half of Cebu’s economy. Unlike malls and larger companies which tend to invest in back-up generators, smaller businesses have been left with no power and therefore in many cases no means to conduct their operations.

The authorities are now scheduling the load-shedding so that businesses know when they are going to get hit with a blackout, but that is still cold comfort for business owners who are seeing their livelihoods scarred by the energy shortages.

The shortages are now expected to last for the rest of the year, with new power generation capacity expected to come online in 2011. Short term, businesses in the Philippines would be well advised to consider their own power generators, whilst long term they should invest in high return-on-investment energy efficiency technologies to cut costs and energy demand.

Image of a Taoist temple in Cebu, Philippines by Capella Boltiador @ Flickr