Danessa
Rivera (The Philippine Star) - April 16, 2019 - 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines —
The Department of Energy (DOE) will elevate to President Duterte its findings
on the red alert warnings and widespread rotational blackouts that recently
occurred in the Luzon grid.
DOE Undersecretary
Felix William Fuentebella yesterday said the agency is investigating and
collating information on the recent supply deficiency caused by the forced outage
of power plants, which left consumers without power for two to three hours last
Friday.
“What we can tell our
consumers is all the information that we’ll gather will be submitted to the
Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), Philippine Competition Commission (PCC),
Congress and especially to the President,” Fuentebella said.
“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
added.
Fuentebella said the
agency did not fall short in planning as he pinned the problem on the
generation companies, particularly those with plants that bogged down.
“We should focus on the problem and the problem is on the forced outage of
plants. It’s not a supply issue,” Fuentebella said. “If there is planning and
no generation capacity will come from plants, then we have a problem.”
Since last month, nine
power plants went on unplanned outages, including the 135-megawatt Unit 1 of
South Luzon Thermal Energy Corp. (March 20), 382-MW Pagbilao 1 of Pagbilao
Energy Corp. (March 26), 344-MW Masinloc 2 of Masinloc Power Partners Co. Ltd.
(March 29), 420-MW Pagbilao 3 of Pagbilao Energy Corp. (April 2), 20-MW Makban
Unit 7 of AP Renewables Inc. (April 3), 150-MW Unit 2 of Southwest Luzon Power
Generation Corp. (April 7), 647-MW Sual 1 of Team Energy Corp. (April 9), 70-MW
Limay A1 of Panasia Energy Inc. (April 11) and the 150-MW Unit 2 of San Miguel
Consolidated Power Corp. (April 11).
Some of these power
plants are also operating with reduced capacity – 344-MW Unit 2 of Masinloc
Power Partners Co. Ltd. at 250 MW; 150-MW Unit 2 of Southwest Luzon Power
Generation Corp. at 100 MW; 420-MW Pagbilao 3 of Pagbilao Energy Corp. at 315
MW and the 300-MW Calaca 2 of SEM-Calaca Power Corp. at 200 MW.
This month, the Luzon
grid was placed on yellow and red alert for six and four days, respectively.
Fuentebella said the
DOE has yet to see the impact of these tight supply conditions on the power
rates but definitely, consumers will see higher rates in the next billing of
power distributors.
“We’ll see the full
impact once we get inputs from the wholesale electricity spot market (WESM) but
the trend we’re seeing is that rates will increase,” he said.
Yesterday, the National
Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) placed the Luzon grid on yellow alert from
9 a.m. to 1 p.m., 4 p.m. to 5 p.m., and 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. and a red alert was
raised from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. with 1,478 MW shaved off from the grid.
The grid operator said
available capacity was only at 10,669 MW while peak demand was estimated to
reach 10,619 MW.
But with the lower
power demand due to the cloudy weather, the red alert was lifted at 3:10 p.m.
yesterday, with available capacity of 10,750 MW and peak demand reached only
10,204 MW.
Manila Electric Co.
(Meralco) spokesman and public information office head Joe Zaldarriaga said
there were no rotational blackouts implemented within the franchise due to
lower actual demand.
For the rest of the
week, the DOE said the supply situation is expected to improve when more plants
come back online on Wednesday and demand subsides due to the observation of
Holy Week.
This is because the
647-MW Sual coal power plant, 420-MW Pagbilao 3 and 150-MW Unit 2 of San Miguel
Consolidated Power Corp. were expected to restart on Wednesday after undergoing
forced outage.
Protecting the public
Focusing on consumer
interest, the DOE said it is continuing to lay down policies to protect the
public.
“To the consumers, we
feel the problem. It’s bothering to us, the DOE, but we are also working doubly
hard to deliver the power requirements. We are forming consumer protection
measures, not just energy efficiency measures,” Fuentebella said.
“We are also working on
a policy that will not pass on higher rates due to power outages to consumers
if they are not itemized under the competitive selection process (CSP). We are
laying down the ancillary service policy and the price determination
methodology included in the causer’s pay mechanism,” he said.
In a separate statement,
the Petroleum Association of the Philippines (PAP) said the recent rotating
blackouts affecting parts of Luzon and Metro Manila due to thin power reserves
highlighted the urgent need for the country to ensure energy security or
self-sufficiency of power supply.
“The recent spate of
brownouts underscores the need for our country to focus on energy security or
our self-sufficiency in energy by being able to draw from our own power stores
instead of relying on global markets,” PAP chairman Rufino Bomasang said.
Bomasang cited the
urgency to develop indigenous energy resources, similar to the Malampaya
project, to meet the growing demands of the country.
“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,” he said.
The Malampaya project,
the first undertaking of its kind in the country, employs deep-water technology
to draw natural gas from beneath Philippine waters.
The indigenous gas
fuels five natural gas-fired power stations with a total generating capacity of
3,200 megawatts to provide power to Luzon.
Supply from Malampaya
remains stable, the PAP official said, with production even going above its
normal average due to the increased demand resulting from the outage of other
power generators.
Bomasang also echoed
the call made by Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian to extend the Malampaya joint venture
license beyond 2024 for the continued safe, reliable flow of natural gas to
Luzon for at least six more years.
“If this is the case,
we must do everything we can to ensure that the Malampaya project is extended
and the gas finds are developed by the same experts who successfully ran the
Malampaya project,” he said.
Mindanao progress key
Meanwhile, Otso Diretso
senatorial bet Samira Gutoc said Mindanao progress could usher in lower power
and energy rates in the country.
Citing a paper
published by the Australian Agency for International Development in 2012, Gutoc
said that Mindanao has “most of the resources necessary for producing fuel and
power, and has ready access to those that it does not have.”
What the national
government needs to do, she said, is to “properly and sufficiently manage and
develop Mindanao’s energy and power industry through relevant, appropriate and
culture-sensitive policies.”
Gutoc said Mindanao has
256 watersheds, two of which – Agusan and Pulangi – are among the largest in
the country.
“These could be a rich
source of cheap and renewable energy… The study also says geothermal resources
are abundant in Mindanao, while the region produces substantial amounts of
agricultural wastes that could feed biomass power plants,” she said, adding two
of the largest oil and gas basins in the country, the Cotabato Basin in
Southern Mindanao and the Agusan-Davao Basin in East Central Mindanao, are
currently being pursued. –
With Helen Flores, Cecille Suerte Felipe
No comments:
Post a Comment