Wednesday, July 23, 2014

No Palace stand on power crisis yet

Manila Standard Today
By Joyce Pangco Panares, Alena Mae S. Flores, Maricel V. Cruz and Vito Barcelo 
Jul. 23, 2014 at 12:01am

PRESIDENT Benigno Aquino III has yet to come up with a decision on the proposal of Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla to declare an emergency to address the projected power supply shortage in Luzon in 2015.

“The final decision will be announced by the President himself,” Petilla said in a text message after a meeting at the Palace on Tuesday.

“We will explore all options but we will not be able to recommend anything for now until the President, Congress and Senate give the go signal,” he said.

Petilla also said he was open to meeting with his detractors who oppose giving Aquino emergency powers so he could put up additional generating capacity.

“If some people are not inclined to do this, I’m more than happy to sit down with them and listen to options,” Petilla said.

“If people are willing to take the risk...if people are willing to have brownouts this summer, then we can opt not to have this.”

Petilla made his statement even as an opposition lawmaker on Tuesday urged Malacañang to convene the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council to discuss the possibility of granting Aquino emergency powers to address the power shortage.

“A state of emergency in the power sector can definitely hasten the approval and therefore the establishment of new power-generation projects,” Isabela Rep. Rodolfo Albano III said.

Reps. Rodel Batocabe, Silvestre Bello, Ben Evardone and Bolet Banal supported Albano but House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said the President should not be given emergency powers unless he asked for it.

The Trade Union Congress on Tuesday supported Petilla’s call to declare an emergency in the power sector.

“We fully support the invocation of Section 71 of EPIRA, which will allow the President to step in with programs to provide additional generation capacity,” group executive director Luis Corral said in a statement.

Based on the projections of the Department of Energy, there could be a possible shortage of 200 megawatts from March to May 2015.

“Secretary Petilla is proposing an additional capacity of 200 to 300 megawatts, making a total of 400 to 500 megawatts in new capacity in Luzon and parts of the Visayas,” Communications Secretary Sonny Coloma said.

“This shortfall may be incurred despite the fact that several new power plants are now being built and will go on stream starting the second half of 2015,” he said.

Petilla invoked Section 71 of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act, which authorizes Congress to establish additional generating capacity if the President determines it is necessary.

“Secretary Petilla clarifies that there may be a need to resort to this EPIRA provision because, according to existing laws, the private sector has primary responsibility for providing new generation capacity and the government may step in only if there is an emergency,” Coloma said.

“Hence, Secretary Petilla says there is a need for government to study at this point whether this course of action is warranted way ahead of the projected time of shortfall.”

Coloma said the Department of Energy was only being “proactive” in addressing the projected shortfall during the summer months of 2015.

Last year, the President did not declare an emergency in Mindanao to address the power shortage there.

Aquino only issued Executive Order 137 in July last year to create a P4.5-billion loan facility for the purchase of modular generator sets that could be tapped by the electric cooperatives in Mindanao.

The P4.5 billion budget was sourced from the Malampaya Fund.

The TUCP has said it supports the proposal to declare a state of emergency to address the power shortage in Luzon but it turned down the Department of Energy’s suggestion that generation sets be purchased of generation. source

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