The increasing demand for power in Mindanao and the lack of additional capacity to accommodate this may result in another power crisis for the region as early as this year, the Philippine Institute for Development Studies warned on Wednesday. PIDS said a study done by its Senior Research Fellow Adoracion Navarro showed electricity demand from the region is foreseen to grow by 4.28% annually between 2010 and 2019, faster than the national rate of 3.63%. Navarro noted that this translates to a demand of as much as 1,428 megawatts (MW) this year and 1,823 MW by 2019, but when computed with a reserve margin of at least 21% of peak demand, generation capacity in the region should be 1,728 MW in 2013 and 2,206 MW in 2019.
