Manila Standard Today
By Joyce Pangco Panares, Maricel V. Cruz | Oct. 22, 2014 at 12:01am
THE Aquino administration remained adamant Tuesday on the need for Congress to grant it the special authority to negotiate supply contracts with power producers after the House committee on energy rebuffed its request and questioned the Energy Department projections of a 1,200-megawatt shortfall next summer.
“The government wants to ensure a stable supply and reasonably priced electricity for our people during the summer months of 2015. We will continue working with Congress in providing an appropriate response and a satisfactory solution: stable and reliable supply at rates that are reasonable and not excessive or abusive,” Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma said.
“The DOE projects that even in the best possible scenario -- that there may not be an actual shortage -- the level of reserves in the summer of 2015 will be minimal or thin. Moreover, if there will be unexpected breakdowns or unscheduled maintenance of power plants, the thin reserves may be depleted thereby causing rotational brownouts,” Coloma said.
In rejecting the Palace request, the House panel said the P6 billion price tag was too high a price to pay to ensure an additional 300 MW.
But Coloma reminded lawmakers negotiating supply contracts is not like buying canned goods off the shelf.
On Monday, the House committee on energy learned that the projected shortage was only 31 MW, and that the thinning of reserves would last only two weeks in summer.
Panel head Oriental Mindoro Rep. Reynaldo Umali said they were more inclined to give the President special powers to implement the Interruptible Load Program (ILP), which encourages large private power consumers to use their own generators when supply is low.
The lawmaker said the private sector has committed 847 MW under the ILP, with a usable capacity of 593 MW.
Among the companies that have expressed willingness to participate in the ILP are the Sy-owned SM group which can unburden the power grid of some 56 MW in demand and Robinsons Land with i22 MW, Ayala Land with 8 MW, Shangri-La with 7 MW, Waltermart with 6 MW, and Ortigas and Megaworld with 4 MW each.
Umali said the joint resolution may be approved by Dec. 1, way after the October target of the Energy Department to give the government at least six months to contract additional power supply.
According to the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines, next summer’s power shortage may translate to one hour rotating brownouts during peak hours from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. and only once a week.
This was in contrast to Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla’s projection of a 1,200 MW shortage if the El Niño dry spell materializes.
Lawmakers on Tuesday slammed Petilla for misleading President Benigno Aquino III, policymakers and the Filipino people by “peddling lies” about the real state of the projected power shortage next year.
Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Carlos Zarate, a member of the House Makabayan bloc, tore into Petilla
not only for “sheer incompetence but deliberate and the continuing act of misleading the public” and scaring it into accepting expensive short-term solutions such as buying generator sets or leasing power barges.
“It has already been established that there is no supply problem,” Zarate told the Manila Standard. “So if President Aquino will continue to also peddle these lies, then he and Secretary Petilla are both answerable to the people,” Zarate added.
Consumers will be asked to pay an additional P0.08 per kilowatt hour as soon as the government implements the Energy Department’s ILP scheme as a solution to the supposed power shortage next summer.
Umali said the additional cost is based on the projected three to five hours of rotating brownouts once a week because of the thinning of reserves.
Umali added that Congress would do its best to minimize the impact of the shortage to spare the public from paying any additional cost.
“Our position is, we don’t want consumers to be burdened,” Umali told a news forum in the House of Representatives. “We are for a subsidy.”
Abakada party-list Rep. Jonathan de la Cruz, member of the House independent minority bloc, demanded that Petilla be held accountable for his mess.
In his letter to Congress last September, President Aquino said he was seeking emergency powers from Congress to allow him to contract additional generating capacity to address a power shortage next year.
But after Monday’s hearing, Kabataan party-list Rep. Terry Ridon asked the President “to abort all orders to pass emergency powers since there is clearly no basis for it.”
But 1-BAP party-list Rep. Silvestre Bello III, a member of the House minority, defended Petilla, saying the Energy chief was “just being careful.”
“We should not take it against him. After all, we have to prevent an energy crisis at all cost,” Bello said.
In a statement, the consumer group People Opposed to Unwarranted Electricity Rates said granting President Aquino emergency powers to address the projected thinning of power reserves during the summer months of 2015 has become unnecessary.
“If a shortfall in the reserve of 21 and 31 megawatts in a week is all that the government aims to fill, there is more than enough supply,” said POWER convenor and former Bayan Muna Rep. Teddy Casiño. “Certainly there is no need to grant the President emergency powers to sign negotiated contracts worth P6 billion to P10 billion for 300-500 megawatts, as proposed by Secretary Petilla. We are glad that the committee has realized this.” source
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