POWER CONSUMERS in Mindanao may have to bear more power outages until the end of the year as the lack of sufficient power supply continues to plague the country’s second biggest island, according to the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP).
In a briefing Friday, NGCP president Henry Sy Jr. stressed that the current power outages being felt in Mindanao was due to the lack of power supply and not because of transmission problems such as congestion, for which the NGCP is being blamed.
“Don’t blame us because the figures don’t lie,” Sy said, as he showed that the power supply deficiencies recorded in September reached as much as 137 megawatts (MW). As of yesterday, power supply deficit in Mindanao stood at only 27 MW.
Sy’s pronouncements, however, ran contrary to the report given by the National Power Corp. (Napocor) to Energy Secretary Jose Rene D. Almendras.
Almendras, in a separate briefing yesterday, said Napocor reported that the power supply in Mindanao was more than enough to meet the requirements, and that there would even be no brownouts this weekend in the island. The current power problems, he added, were mainly due to transmission issues.
For one, the energy chief questioned the failure of the NGCP to transmit the necessary load being provided by the Pulangi facilities. In particular, he added, a unit of the Pulangi hydropower complex can provide as much as 85 MW, but the NGCP was transmitting only 60 MW.
NGCP, however, strongly contested these allegations, saying that the transmission network in Mindanao can handle as much as 540 MW, which was more than enough to accommodate the actual power flow in the island of 420 MW.
Rex F. Corpuz, senior adviser to the president at NGCP, explained that the power outages were due to the fact that the actual power supply cannot meet the 4-5 percent growth in the demand for energy in the island.
Worsening the lack of new capacity was the fact that at any given time, two to three of Napocor’s eight power plants, such as Agus 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, Pulangi, and Power Barge 104, are shut down for various reasons.
“Thus, lately, there is substantially less energy traffic within the Mindanao grid, and the energy demands of Mindanao cannot be met. It is for this reason that Mindanao has started to experience, again, a spate of brownouts,” the NGCP said.
For the short-term, the NGCP is encouraging the Aboitiz-led Therma Marine Inc. to make available the 200 MW in capacity from its Power Barge 117 and PB 118 as baseload supply.
“TMI must directly enter into supply contracts with the distribution utilities in the area so that NGCP may dispatch the same. The high cost charged by TMI for these diesel-run power barges may be a reason why TMI is unable to secure a power supply contract with distribution utilities,” the NGCP said.
Another option would be for the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. or any other entity to take the available capacity of TMI.
“PSALM, because of the number of its hydro-power plants, may very well blend in the generating costs of the diesel-fueled barges of TMI to lower the charges passed on to distribution utilities and, ultimately, the consumers,” NGCP explained.
Currently, NGCP has a contract with TMI only for the provision of ancillary services alone, not for the supply of power for the consumption of end-users. NGCP is not allowed by law or existing regulations to contract with power generators for the supply to end-users.
Almendras assured the public that there was no need to invoke Sec. 71 of the Electric Power Industry reform Act (Epira) or to declare a “power crisis” as what happened in the previous administration. He expressed confidence that the government can solve the power supply problem in Mindanao, given that the DOE is already rolling out measures to address the deficit.
In a briefing Friday, NGCP president Henry Sy Jr. stressed that the current power outages being felt in Mindanao was due to the lack of power supply and not because of transmission problems such as congestion, for which the NGCP is being blamed.
“Don’t blame us because the figures don’t lie,” Sy said, as he showed that the power supply deficiencies recorded in September reached as much as 137 megawatts (MW). As of yesterday, power supply deficit in Mindanao stood at only 27 MW.
Sy’s pronouncements, however, ran contrary to the report given by the National Power Corp. (Napocor) to Energy Secretary Jose Rene D. Almendras.
Almendras, in a separate briefing yesterday, said Napocor reported that the power supply in Mindanao was more than enough to meet the requirements, and that there would even be no brownouts this weekend in the island. The current power problems, he added, were mainly due to transmission issues.
For one, the energy chief questioned the failure of the NGCP to transmit the necessary load being provided by the Pulangi facilities. In particular, he added, a unit of the Pulangi hydropower complex can provide as much as 85 MW, but the NGCP was transmitting only 60 MW.
NGCP, however, strongly contested these allegations, saying that the transmission network in Mindanao can handle as much as 540 MW, which was more than enough to accommodate the actual power flow in the island of 420 MW.
Rex F. Corpuz, senior adviser to the president at NGCP, explained that the power outages were due to the fact that the actual power supply cannot meet the 4-5 percent growth in the demand for energy in the island.
Worsening the lack of new capacity was the fact that at any given time, two to three of Napocor’s eight power plants, such as Agus 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, Pulangi, and Power Barge 104, are shut down for various reasons.
“Thus, lately, there is substantially less energy traffic within the Mindanao grid, and the energy demands of Mindanao cannot be met. It is for this reason that Mindanao has started to experience, again, a spate of brownouts,” the NGCP said.
For the short-term, the NGCP is encouraging the Aboitiz-led Therma Marine Inc. to make available the 200 MW in capacity from its Power Barge 117 and PB 118 as baseload supply.
“TMI must directly enter into supply contracts with the distribution utilities in the area so that NGCP may dispatch the same. The high cost charged by TMI for these diesel-run power barges may be a reason why TMI is unable to secure a power supply contract with distribution utilities,” the NGCP said.
Another option would be for the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. or any other entity to take the available capacity of TMI.
“PSALM, because of the number of its hydro-power plants, may very well blend in the generating costs of the diesel-fueled barges of TMI to lower the charges passed on to distribution utilities and, ultimately, the consumers,” NGCP explained.
Currently, NGCP has a contract with TMI only for the provision of ancillary services alone, not for the supply of power for the consumption of end-users. NGCP is not allowed by law or existing regulations to contract with power generators for the supply to end-users.
Almendras assured the public that there was no need to invoke Sec. 71 of the Electric Power Industry reform Act (Epira) or to declare a “power crisis” as what happened in the previous administration. He expressed confidence that the government can solve the power supply problem in Mindanao, given that the DOE is already rolling out measures to address the deficit.
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