Business World Online
Posted on March 14, 2012 10:48:43 PM
A DIRECTIVE aimed at easing Mindanao’s power problems could be issued by next week, an Energy department official said.
The circular, Energy Undersecretary Josefina Patricia M. Asirit told reporters, is expected to free up around 300 megawatts (MW) of undistributed power.
"The circular may be out next week. The circular will make the withdrawal of capacities mandatory," Ms. Asirit said.
"In being able to rationalize the generation capacity of Mindanao, the dispatching of electricity is going to be part of the department circular ... [which] also has to consider the attendant and existing power supply agreements that are already there," she added.
National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) "will no longer be required to segregate and engage in the necessary reserve requirement," which will be cut to 100 MW from 250 MW.
Mindanao, which has been experiencing rotating brownouts in the past few months, has a normal power requirement ranging from 1,400 MW during weekdays to 1,200 MW on weekends. As of yesterday, the NGCP’s website noted a 194-MW deficiency.
The Energy department had earlier sought permission from the Joint Congressional Power Committee to allow it to lower the mandated reserve level. Ms. Asirit said permission had been granted by the panel.
NGCP said it welcomed the planned circular.
"That is the barest minimum of reserves we can have. In fact we are already operating on a 90-MW reserve," NGCP spokesperson Cynthia D. Perez-Alabanza told BusinessWorld.
A similar circular was issued in 2010 at the height of a dry spell that forced the temporary closure of Mindanao’s hydroelectric power plants. -- Emilia Narni J. David
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