Published
October 10, 2018, 10:00 PM By
Myrna M. Velasco
The Federation of
Philippine Industries (FPI), which has 34 industry associations and 120
manufacturing entities under its wing, is prodding relevant government agencies
on capacity additions that could ensure the country’s reliable and sufficient
power supply even beyond the term of the Duterte administration.
The business
organization said it is “pushing for the immediate construction of new power
plants to secure the country’s long-term power requirements,” at the same time,
cast a strong anchor to the “Build, Build, Build” infrastructure development
platform of the sitting leadership.
FPI chiefly pleaded to
the Department of Energy (DOE) and Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to lead
the way in the next round of power project installations in the country.
It has to be noted that
approvals of power projects could be subverted by processes at these two
relevant government agencies, hence, the FPI called on all key stakeholders “to
work together to ensure that electricity supply and prices will not be an
additional burden to consumers.”
Amid the controversies
the proposed facility had been embroiled in, the FPI made particular pitch for
the 1,200-megawatt Atimonan One Energy (A1E) coal fired power project of
Meralco Power Gen (MGen), the power generation investment subsidiary of Manila
Electric Company.
Arranza said “the
Atimonan project is an example of a very significant power project that can
ensure supply availability in the future.” This particular power plant venture
is shovel-ready but it struggles moving to construction phase because its power
supply agreement (PSA) had not been approved yet by the ERC.
While noting that
industries are already suffering from the brunt of rising inflation, Dr. Jesus
L. Arranza noted that at the very least, “we want the power industry to step up
and do something, so we can prevent a potential problem on electricity supply.”
He opined that
“building more power plants and bringing in more supply to the market can bring
down power prices.”
The business group
further raised concerns that since “most of the power plants in the Philippines
are ageing and most of them are already 15 years old or older,” such renders
them more susceptible to forced outages, hence, triggering tightness and even
shortage of supply in the system at times.
Arranza illustrated
that in the coconut industry in particular, “where crushing of copra requires
great degree of power, the completion of this additional power plant in the
aforesaid coconut region will certainly encourage investment.”
He stressed that
setting up oil refining plants are often “hampered by lack of adequate power
which is indispensable for (their) efficient operations.”
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