Governor says brownouts hurting business: ‘Not yet a power crisis’

Negros Occidental Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson acknowledged Friday that the frequent rotational brownouts sweeping the Visayas are hurting business operations, but said the situation has not yet escalated to a declared power crisis.

“Definitely, it is bad for business. While many businesses have their own generators, that adds extra cost,” Lacson said.

He clarified that the root cause lies not in distribution networks but in insufficient power supply, as key generating facilities remain offline or under maintenance.

“The problem is not with distribution — it is the power supply itself. Many generators have bogged down or are undergoing maintenance. This is bad for business across the entire region,” the governor pointed out.

When asked whether the province would consider coal-fired power plants to close the supply gap, Lacson reaffirmed Negros Occidental’s commitment to renewable energy.

“We do not have local baseload power; our supply comes from Panay or Cebu. We have declared we are going renewable, and it is very obvious that most new power investments here are in solar energy. That policy remains in place,” he said.

Asked it this is a full power crisis, Lacson said: “Right now, not yet. Average outages run two to three hours. If they drag on much longer, we may have to consider a formal declaration. I hope these generators come back online as soon as possible. The Department of Energy is fully aware of the situation in the Visayas, which is why these advisories keep coming.”*