By Lenie
Lectura - April 16, 2019 Last updated on
THE Department of
Energy (DOE) and the power-generation firms on Monday firmly denied that lack
of planning and collusion were to blame for last week’s rotational brownouts
that hit Luzon.
This, as the Luzon grid
was placed on red alert on Monday, the fourth time this month. The alert notice
was eventually lifted at 3:10 p.m.
The main culprit,
according to DOE Undersecretary Felix William Fuentebella, is the forced outage
of old and relatively new power plants.
He said several power
plants, with a total capacity of 1,500 megawatts, bogged down due to various
technical glitches. The DOE cited two more reasons: the capacity of some
power plants got derated by around 111 MW, and the scheduled maintenance
shutdown of power plants shaved off 872 MW of capacity from the Luzon grid.
“This is a very high
number. It was caused by forced outages. The impact of 2,500 MW is enough to
power the entire Mindanao grid. That is how big it is.
The problem is forced
outages occurred. Unplanned is unplanned, forced is forced unless plant
managers tell us a formula on how we can see ahead.
Pumalya ang mga planta
[The plants simply failed],” said Fuentebella at Monday’s news conference.
Asked if there was lack
of planning on DOE’s part, Fuentebella said, “No. We should focus on the
problem, and the problem is on forced outage. It’s not supply. Dugtong dugtong
ang problema. But no, walang pagkukulang sa planning. Magkakaproblema lang iyan
sa focus. Kahit may planning ka, kung wala ka namang focus [The problems are
interconnected. But no, there was no failure in planning. A problem will only
arise in terms of focus. Even if you have planning, you’ll have a problem if
you lack focus],” the DOE official said.
Gencos: No collusion
Meantime,
representatives of power-generation firms present disputed suspicion of
collusion, pointing out that they don’t profit at all if their plants are not
delivering power.
delivering power.
AboitizPower Chief
Operating Officer Emmanuel Rubio said the capacity lost is being replaced by
buying from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM). However, they do not
pass on to consumers the higher spot market prices.
“Only when a plant is
running [do] we make revenues, because that’s the only time we can sell power
to consumers. We’re losing money because 200 MW is out. We are contracted
beyond the capacity we operate. We rely on some our facilities, we rely on
WESM. The WESM price hit P9, but we sell P3 to our customers,” Rubio said.
Pagbilao 3, which was
put up by Aboitiz and Team Energy Corp. , is a new plant that began commercial
operation in March 2018. It was scheduled to resume operation today (April 16)
after conking out.
Team Energy, which
operates the 20-year-old Sual power plant, also said that the plant’s output is
fully contracted. “It is not in our best interest if the plant is on shutdown.
Revenue is lost and at times we source replacement energy from WESM,” said
company representative Froilan Gregory Romualdez.
The DOE and the power
generators assured the public that no costs are passed on to consumers. “We
have policies in place that protect consumers. We have a policy on
ancillary service that is being drafted, a price-determination methodology that
can be included in the planned causer’s pay policy,” said Fuentebella.
The DOE submitted data
to the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), which is in a better
position to determine if there was collusion involved or if the reasons for the
forced plant outage match that of the ERC’s findings.
“What we can only say
is this. Lahat ng impormasyon na makukuha natin, ibibigay natin sa ERC, PCC,
Congress lalong lalo na kay Pangulo [All the information we get, we pass on to
the Energy Regulatory Commission, the Philippine Competition Commission,
Congress and especially the President]. At the end of the day, we will remain
answerable to all these, and we will try to leave you with as many updates, as
transparent and as timely as we can,” he said.
Meralco: Fresh spike likely
The Manila Electric Co.
(Meralco), meanwhile, said power rates are likely to spike again this
month. The utility firm purchased roughly 10 percent of its power
requirements from WESM last month.
“So far, it’s too early
to say how much. We usually receive the spot market prices billing by the end
of the month. In the first week of March, three days of yellow alert. For
April, so far, there are six days of yellow and four red alerts. We
think the situation this month is different from March, and [will] have a
corresponding impact on spot market prices, in which it has breached to more
than P9,” said Meralco utility economics head Lawrence Fernandez.
Meanwhile, the
Petroleum Association of the Philippines (PAP) said the recent spate of
brownouts underscores the need for the country to focus on energy security or
self-sufficiency in energy by being able to draw from its own power stores
instead of relying on global markets.
“But there’s no need to
look far,” said Rufino Bomasang, PAP chairman. “We have existing indigenous
energy at our disposal, such as what we draw from the Malampaya gas field in
northwest Palawan. Since natural gas is an indigenous energy, it also helps in
energy security.”
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