Friday, May 29, 2015

Enough power supply despite El Niño – DOE

By Celso Amo (The Philippine Star) | Updated May 29, 2015 - 12:00am

LEGAZPI CITY, Philippines – Even while water levels at various reservoirs in the country are approaching or already below critical point as an effect of the weak El Niño phenomenon, Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla assured the public that the power industry is stable and sustainable.

“The reserves we have right now are still enough. There will be a point when it would reach near critical level, but even a power reserve of only 10 megawatts will be enough for the short term,” he said during a press conference Wednesday at the Albay provincial capitol.

Water level at Pantabangan dam in Nueva Ecija is approaching critical point, while the Angat reservoir is now below the 180-meter critical level.

“But this is not as if we did not expect this. If there’s a problem, as long as you know it’s coming, you know how to solve it,” said Petilla.

The state weather bureau earlier said the El Niño would likely continue until the middle of 2015 with chances of strengthening toward the end of the year.

The energy chief pointed out that they had expected many power plants to stop operating by March, but when the summer months came “all power plants were operating and optimized.”

Petilla, who filed his resignation last month and reportedly eyes a Senate seat in the coming polls, said there are 66 power plants – excluding the small ones – being put up in the country, which he attributed to investor confidence in the present administration.

With the development of renewable energy, he said the power industry now provides 400 MW from wind towers as well as 70 MW from solar energy plants, with a projection of 100 MW in March 2016.

As a result, he said the price of electricity at the wholesale electricity spot market (WESM) has gone down compared to two years ago.

Albay Gov. Joey Salceda lauded Petilla for bringing price stability and discipline at the WESM, “which was the biggest constraint threatening electricity consumers in the country.”

Meanwhile, the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines appealed to the public, particularly farmers, to refrain from kaingin, or the cultivation system of cutting and burning trees.

“In Pampanga, Nueva Ecija and Bulacan, where rice farming is a primary source of income, burned hay and grass interrupted the transmission of power. The thick smoke from a burning fire near or under the high-voltage lines may create a conductive path for a so-called flashover across the air gap between the three conductors of a transmission line,” the NGCP said in a statement.

The agency also noted that in Samar and Eastern Visayas, recent bush fires resulted in the burning of its 69-kiloVolt (kV) wood poles, which led to power interruptions of up to eight hours. – With Ding Cervantes source

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