Power woes bug Boracay resortsBY LEILA SALAVERRIA
BORACAY, Aklan -- Tourism Secretary Joseph Ace Durano assured resort owners that he would look into the problem of fluctuating electricity on this tourist island during a visit to several hotels over the weekend.
The resort owners said the power problem has disrupted services and taken its toll on electricity equipment, according to Edwin Trompeta, the Department of Tourism director for Western Visayas.
The power distributor for the 1,032-hectare resort island is the Aklan Electric Cooperative, which obtains its supply from the National Power Corp., Trompeta said.
Trompeta said there was no dearth of electricity supply for Boracay island. He said the problem stems from the damage caused by a barge in February to the underwater cables carrying electricity to the island.
“There’s no problem with the supply. It’s the distribution that is causing the fluctuation,” he told reporters over the weekend.
He said it would cost millions of pesos to repair the damage.
Even though many of the bigger establishments have their own generators, there is concern that the brownouts would damage electrical equipment, said Trompeta. They could also lead to spoilage of food supplies, especially for smaller establishments that do not have generators, he added.
Annabelle Wisniewski, president of the HSAI Raintree Management Co. that runs the Discovery Shores in Boracay, said the hotel has taken to using its generators in the evening even if there is no brownout, to make sure its guests would get uninterrupted electric service.
Trompeta said the electricity demand in Boracay has naturally increased with the growing number of tourists visiting the island.
A report on the BCCI website said the island’s daily electricity demand is about 7.5 megawatts.
Before resorts and other establishments started mushrooming in Boracay, the demand was about three to four megawatts, said Trompeta.
According to DoT statistics, 234,491 foreign and local tourists visited Boracay in the first four months of 2007, a four percent increase from the same period last year.
April saw the highest number of foreign and local visitors this year, with 93,615.
Some 73,104 foreign tourists came to the island in the first four months of the year, a 40 percent increase against the figure for the same period last year.
The resort owners said the power problem has disrupted services and taken its toll on electricity equipment, according to Edwin Trompeta, the Department of Tourism director for Western Visayas.
The power distributor for the 1,032-hectare resort island is the Aklan Electric Cooperative, which obtains its supply from the National Power Corp., Trompeta said.
Trompeta said there was no dearth of electricity supply for Boracay island. He said the problem stems from the damage caused by a barge in February to the underwater cables carrying electricity to the island.
“There’s no problem with the supply. It’s the distribution that is causing the fluctuation,” he told reporters over the weekend.
He said it would cost millions of pesos to repair the damage.
Even though many of the bigger establishments have their own generators, there is concern that the brownouts would damage electrical equipment, said Trompeta. They could also lead to spoilage of food supplies, especially for smaller establishments that do not have generators, he added.
Annabelle Wisniewski, president of the HSAI Raintree Management Co. that runs the Discovery Shores in Boracay, said the hotel has taken to using its generators in the evening even if there is no brownout, to make sure its guests would get uninterrupted electric service.
Trompeta said the electricity demand in Boracay has naturally increased with the growing number of tourists visiting the island.
A report on the BCCI website said the island’s daily electricity demand is about 7.5 megawatts.
Before resorts and other establishments started mushrooming in Boracay, the demand was about three to four megawatts, said Trompeta.
According to DoT statistics, 234,491 foreign and local tourists visited Boracay in the first four months of 2007, a four percent increase from the same period last year.
April saw the highest number of foreign and local visitors this year, with 93,615.
Some 73,104 foreign tourists came to the island in the first four months of the year, a 40 percent increase against the figure for the same period last year.
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