Capiz endured P552 M economic loss from New Year blackout

By Rjay Zuriaga Castor

The power blackout that gripped Capiz province, including Roxas City, for four days resulted in an estimated economic loss of a staggering P552 million.

“Since there is a total of 65-hour power interruption within Panay Island from January 2 to 5, 2024; therefore, the said event led to an estimated economic loss of around P552 million,” the Capiz Provincial Planning and Development Office (PPDO) said.

According to the PPDO, they applied a formula based on the value of lost load (VoLL), utilizing the province’s Gross Domestic Product from the previous year and the reported power loss by Capiz Electric Cooperative (CAPELCO).

VoLL, a monetary indicator developed by the Philippine Independent Power Producers Association Inc., expresses the costs of interrupting the electricity supply at a macro level.

“The most important measure that could tell how an economy performs is the GDP. It is the monetary value of goods and services produced by a certain area or territory within a specific time period, usually per year,” the PDDO said.

The PDDO stressed that since GDP takes into account all the outputs being generated, “no electricity could also mean no income for the economy.”

In 2022, Capiz’s GDP reached P74.4 billion. This, according to the PDDO, implies a daily income of approximately P204 million or P8.5 million per hour.

Based on power loss estimates from CAPELCO, Capiz lost around P26.1 million daily, with Roxas City experiencing a loss of P25.7 million during the four-day power outage.

“In the province-wide context, the total power generated for the whole province including Roxas City based on the peak coincident load is approximately 49.2 megawatts (MW). Due to the power outage, it is estimated to have a total of approximately 54.7 million pesos with respect to the economic loss of the whole province within 24 hours,” the PDDO said.

CAPELCO reported that Roxas City’s power consumption is at 25.7 MW, while the province consumes 23.5 MW based on peak load.

Excluding the GDP factor, the PDDO said that the whole province of Capiz suffered an estimated economic loss of P148.2 million from the 65 hours of no electricity,