Securing additional 180-MW supply buffer

Manila Bulletin
September 21, 2014

Meanwhile, Reyes said the power utility giant is securing additional 180 megawatts into its supply portfolio as it takes proactive measures to spare its customers from rolling brownouts during the critical summer months next year.

Reyes said they are currently in discussion with three prospective power suppliers to beef up their contracted capacity.

The additional power sources are expected come from Millenium Holdings for the 100-MW capacity of its Navotas land-based gas turbine power facility; a 20MW prospective capacity addition from the interconnection of the Botocan facility; and additional 60MW being offered by JG Summit Holdings of the Gokongwei group.

“We are in talks with Millenium for the rehab of their Navotas plant. We are also looking at the interconnection of Botocan plant and that should add 20MW…we are also discussing with JG Summit that could potentially give 60MW,” said the Meralco chief executive, who stressed these sources should provide additional 180MW buffer supply.

Reyes said that shoring up their supply for the brownout-ridden summer months next year is manageable given all the potential capacity they can secure to meet growth in demand.

“Everyone which has the potential to provide additional capacity, we are in discussion with them,” he stressed.

Other parties they have been negotiating with are the potential providers via the government-sanctioned interruptible load program or ILP.

Meralco has cornered the participation of some ILP participants for roughly 140MW capacity, but in previous incidence of power outages, it was noted that the capacity extraction had just been normally half of it, thus, the need for heftier supply buffer.

The company has also been extending the interim power supply agreements (IPSAs) it earlier entered into with various power generators. The availability of some capacities had been previously constrained by lag in regulatory approvals though.

Meralco has been working on these supply reinforcement measures outside the purview of the Section 71 or the so-called government intervention on solutions via the declaration of power crisis as enshrined under the Electric Power Industry Reform Act.

Further, Reyes noted that Meralco will “similarly step up its communication advocacy to encourage people into energy conservation and efficiency in demand management, because every 1.0-percent reduction in power use with energy efficiency could translate to about 60MW reduction in demand.” (MMV) source