Natural gas-powered plants could be permitted to use diesel fuel during periods of tight supply

Business World Online
Posted on August 19, 2015 08:38:00 PM
By Melissa Luz T. Lopez, Reporter

POWER PLANTS fueled by natural gas may soon be allowed to run on diesel during periods when electricity is in short supply.

A measure that would formally exempt natural gas-fired plants from the Biofuels Act has been approved at the committee level at the House of Representatives, with the goal of averting future supply crises when large plants are down for maintenance.

“This is the proposal of Senator Sergio R. Osmeña III to exempt natural gas plants which we adopted here and approved,” Oriental Mindoro Rep. Reynaldo V. Umali (2nd district), chairman of the House committee on energy, told reporters on Tuesday.

Under Republic Act 9367 or the Biofuels Act of 2006, all power generation facilities are required to use biodiesel to cut emissions. However, power plants generate less electricity when using the cleaner fuel.

Mr. Umali explained that it was one of the solutions put forward by Mr. Osmeña to avert the projected March-July 2015 power crisis in Luzon.

The Energy department had warned of thin power reserves during the dry season due to the Malampaya maintenance period from March 15 to April 14, which cut the gas supply for three power plants supplying 2,700 megawatts to the Luzon grid.

“As the power plants that use biodiesel will have reduced limited capacity, House Bill 5587 seeks to exempt natural gas power generating plants and allow them to use pure or straight-run diesel for a limited time frame,” Mr. Umali said in a separate statement.

Natural gas-fired plants may only shift to diesel during power crisis periods which are duly declared by the President. Once supply is back to normal, the plants must revert to biodiesel.

A counterpart bill was approved on third and final reading by the Senate in March.

After securing committee approval, the measure will have to be approved on second and third readings by the House plenary before it can be submitted to Malacañang for signing into law. source