posted April 12, 2016 at 11:05 pm by Alena Mae S. Flores
Philippine Electricity Market Corp.
said Tuesday the decision of Millennium Energy Inc. to withdraw from the
Wholesale Electricity Spot Market will have an impact on supply during the dry
months.
PEMC, which operates the electricity
market, delisted Millennium on April 1 after the power generator sought an end
to its WESM membership following the non-renewal a the distribution wheeling
service agreement with Meralco.
Millennium operates the 100-megawatt
diesel-fired power plant in Navotas. The company decided to stop supplying
power capacity to the wholesale electricity spot market after incurring losses
due to the wheeling charges collected by Meralco.
PEMC, however, said despite the
cessation of registration, the outstanding obligations and liabilities of
Millennium to the WESM were valid until fully settled.
“PEMC followed its procedures in
deregistering Millennium from its roster of WESM membership. The immediate
impact will be the reduction of offers to be traded in the market that will
result in the tightening of supply against the backdrop of increased demand
during the summer months and forthcoming election day,” PEMC president Melinda
Ocampo in a statement.
Demand has been going up in recent
days with the onset of the dry months.
Power supply in the Luzon grid,
meanwhile, normalized Tuesday with the return of operations of several power
plants, including unit 2 of the Sual coal-fired power plant in Pangasinan
with a capacity of 647 megawatts.
One unit of the Sual plant was back
online at 8:01 p.m. Monday after the plant tripped at 3:14 p.m. Monday.
The yellow alert for the Luzon grid
was lifted at 10:01 p.m. Monday even as the Therma Mobile units 5 and 6 with a
combined capacity of 119 MW and the 300-MW Calaca coal plant in Batangas
remained offline.
A yellow alert means the grid has a
limited or thin power reserve.
The Magat hydro plants units 3 and
4, however, are expected to return to operations late Monday.
Energy Undersecretary Mylene Capongcol
said Luzon grid’s capacity reached 10,526 MW compared with the peak demand of
9,154 MW. Luzon’s net reserve was at 1,005 MW on Monday afternoon, increasing
to 1,643 MW Monday evening.
On Tuesday, peak demand reached a
high of 9,255 MW, which the department attributed to the hottest El Niño
weather phenomenon to date.
“In this critical phase concerning
our power supply, we are counting on the collective effort of everybody to
proactive energy efficiency,” Energy Secretary Zenaida Monsada said.
Monsada, meanwhile, said while the
distribution wheeling rate issue was the concern of the Energy Regulatory
Commission, the Energy Department conceded the diesel plant could add capacity
to the grid during the dry months.
“If it can run again, it will help
improve the supply situation,” Monsada said. Power supply is historically tight
during the dry months when demand is high.
“We will coordinate with ERC about
Millennium. The issue is compensation. We cannot force anybody if it is not
properly compensated,” Monsada said.
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