Business Mirror Published on Thursday, 14 March 2013 20:07
THE Senate co-chairman of the Joint Congressional Power Commission said on Thursday that there will be “tight” power supply in Luzon next year that may result to power outages since the economy has been growing faster than predicted, hiking up demand.
Sen. Sergio Osmeña III said at the Kapihan sa Senado that power reserves are currently “too thin,” which raise the chance of brownouts next year.
“I don’t see any brownouts this year barring any unforeseencircumstances….However, we’re going to have a tight supply starting next year. I foresee that. The numbers show it. And we have to get more power plants up and running. And the reason for that is good. Our economy is growing faster than we predicted it to grow,” Osmeña said.
He said power supply in Luzon will be tight from 2014 to 2015, “a little better in 2016” and “enough by 2017-2018.”
Osmeña said the only big power plant to be onstream is GN Power Ltd.’s 600-megawatt (MW) coal-fired power plant in Mariveles, Bataan.
He expressed hope that the 600-MW coal-fired power plant of Redondo Peninsula Energy Inc. (RP Energy) in Subic Freeport would no longer encounter any problems, as well as the expansion of power plants in Calaca, Batangas; Pagbilao, Quezon; and in Masinloc, Zambales.
“If there’s no delay, we will have enough power by 2017. But if there’s a delay, if the greenies protest and say coal is bad, etc., we’re going to have problems kasi nadedelay lahat ’yon,” Osmeña said.
The senator said increased economic activity in Metro Manila, for example, had given rise to new buildings and other commercial infrastructure that consume electricity.
“That consumes power and that was not planned three to four years ago. That’s a good thing for us. That’s why we always want to build a reserve just in case we grow faster, just in case there’s an unforeseen breakdown, we will have another plant to kick in and supply the power so that there would absolutely be no interruption in power,” he said.
Osmeña also said he supports the decision of the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to approve the National Power Corp.’s (Napocor) petition for an additional universal charge of 19.38 centavos per kilowatt-hour starting March 2013 to allow it to settle its debts.
Asked whether it is reasonable for Napocor to impose higher universal charges this summer, when households are forced to consume more electricity, Osmeña said the petition has been pending for quite some time already and that Napocor is “just trying to play catch-up to what they already paid for four to five years ago.”
“Am I in favor of postponing? If I wanted to be popular with the voter I would have said yes. But if I want to be practical and I want to make sure that you have a smoothly running power industry, I’d say, no, go on and give it to them because they’ve been waiting for it for a long time at lumalaki nang lumalaki ’yung utang nila,” he said. source
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