DOE calls meeting on power supply

by Myrna Velasco April 21, 2016

http://www.mb.com.ph/doe-calls-meeting-on-power-supply/

Preparation for May 9 pollsThe Department of Energy (DOE)is calling for an urgent meeting with Luzon power generation companies (GenCos) to tackle power supply situation and hurdles on next month’s election period. In a letter sent to the Philippine Independent Power Producers Association Inc. (PIPPA) through its president Luis Miguel Aboitiz, the energy department has scheduled the meeting afternoon of April 25 (Monday). The department will be engaging the power generators on final stretch of planning in “ensuring sufficiency and energy security during the election period.” The DOE said the discussions will revolve around concerns on: on-going preparations, including status of power plant maintenance activities, “to ensure availability of these power plants to meet the required demand to prevent power outages one week before and one week after the May 9, 2016 elections.” It must be noted that power supply in Luzon had been on rough patches last week with occasional strike of rolling power interruptions. Several power plants have been on maintenance shutdown in the past weeks, but all of them are expected back-on line at least a week prior to the slated May 9 election. It has been the hope of the department that none of the generating facilities on downtime will have extended maintenance activity given the very critical power supply situation – not only in Luzon but also in Visayas and Mindanao. The department has been lining up alternative measures on how to shore up supply over the polling season and the whole stretch of summer months. One of these would be reinforcing its call for energy conservation as demand continues to rise due to the scorching weather. Energy Secretary Zenaida Y. Monsada said they will be calling on government agencies to lead the way in this initiative. Part of their plan will be to channel their ‘energy conservation plea to co-government agencies’ via the Palace. “The government should be the role model in energy efficiency and conservation initiatives... we can write to Malacañang to request other government agencies to become part of this,” the energy chief said. But she acknowledged that there is a little dilemma when it comes to government buildings – because most of their air-conditioning units do not have thermostat, so the only option would be to turn it on-and-off which may not be a very efficient practice. The department is also exploring the possibility of talking to mall operators – in particular, to request them to set their air-conditioning systems to higher temperature of 25 degrees, including in their cinemas.