Simeon Marfori II, President of the Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry Inc. (DCCCII), said power supply was crucial for investors and the looming supply shortfall might make them think twice about investing in Mindanao.

The disconnect between supply and demand—with 80 percent of supply coming from the north and 80 percent of demand coming from the south—has yet to be addressed, he said. This was being aggravated by the fact that hardly any new capacity was expected to come in any time soon.

“Davao alone accounts for 51 percent of grid consumption. If nothing is done now, demand will intersect with supply by 2010 or 2011,” he said. “There are power projects that are expected to go on stream, but we need to buy a little more time. We expect a shortfall of 500 megawatts (MW) by 2011 and of another 400 MW by 2014.”

“There’s a looming power crisis, with the entire Mindanao grid to experience a shortfall as early as 2011. The (Department of Energy) has confirmed that a power crisis is coming. If we don’t do anything soon, we won’t be able to avert this on time,” he added.

He pointed out that the extremely low power rates in Mindanao, due to its huge dependence on inexpensive hydroelectricity, were not encouraging investors to bankroll new capacity in the grid.