The departure of the 25-megawatt power barge from General Santos which is supposedly this morning will be aborted as company engineers found more problems in the mooring facilities in Cortes town.

Engr. Jun Pepito, manager of the SPC Power Corp. said that their latest inspection at the Cortes mooring area showed that the planned placement of floaters to expedite the commissioning of the barge is not technically possible. Instead, the rehabilitation work needs concrete fenders for the barge to dock.

Because of this more elaborate rehab work needed at the mooring site in Cortes, he advised yesterday afternoon their central offices to hold in abeyance the departure of the power barge from General Santos City.

This latest development was discussed during an emergency meeting with Gov. Edgar Chatto and Cortes Mayor Yven Lim yesterday afternoon following the discovery of the much needed repair of the mooring facilities.

The work of having a concrete fender will run for 2 to 3 months, Engr. Pepito told the Chronicle yesterday.\

With the delay in the arrival and commissioning of the power barge, the province will continue to experience rational brownouts. 

Observations showed that with the shortfall of 20% of the needed power supply, the rational brownouts are experience every other day on an average of two hour power interruption.

Presently, the power supply in the province comes from the Bohol Diesel Plant in Dampas (12 mega), Hanopol hydro (2.5 mega), Sevilla mini-hydro (5 mega) and Loboc mini-hyro with 1 mega. The Leyte connection is giving a total of 58 mega for Bohol power consumers.