ABOITIZ Power Corp. has joined the chorus of generation companies that expect an oversupply of electricity in Mindanao starting this year and possibly extending into the next five years as new power plants come on-stream on the southern island.

“The oversupply in Mindanao is actually serious, it’s huge. Mindanao has a peak requirement of about 1,300 or 1,400 megawatts (MW),” said Antonio R. Moraza, president and chief operating officer of AboitizPower, in a briefing on Thursday in Taguig City.

“Between us and everyone else, another 1,000 [MW] something is going to be delivered. So you’re going to double supply, almost.”

Mr. Moraza echoed previous estimates by officials of Alsons Consolidated Resources, Inc. and San Miguel Corp. (SMC), who separately projected excess capacity and comfortable power reserves.

Alsons earlier this year started the commercial run of the first 105-MW section of its 210-MW Sarangani coal-fired power plant. SMC scheduled the operation of the first unit of its Malita project in September. The Davao facility is a four-unit coal-fired power plant, each with a capacity of 150 MW.

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