Danessa Rivera (The Philippine Star)
- March 17, 2018 - 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines — The Department
of Energy (DOE) and the Department of Science and Technology-Philippine
Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (DOST-Phivolcs) have teamed up to
strengthen disaster management capabilities of the energy sector.
The partnership will also be able to
determine where critical power facilities, such as nuclear plants, can be
viable.
Under the collaboration, the two
agencies will enhance the capacity of the energy sector in terms of determining
the areas of concern for earthquake incidents using their state-of-the-art
software called Rapid Earthquake Damage Assessment System (REDAS).
A Filipino-made software, the REDAS
is a tool for emergency preparedness, contingency planning and mainstreaming
disaster risk reduction on the adverse effects of earthquakes.
The use of REDAS will benefit the
energy sector by having near real-time simulated earthquake hazard information
that can help assess the situation on the ground.
During the signing of the memorandum
of agreement (MOA) yesterday, DOST undersecretary Renato Solidum cited the
importance of REDAS as the Philippines is the third most disaster-prone country
in the world.
Under the MOA, the DOE and Phivolcs
would undertake and pursue intensive REDAS training, endeavor knowledge and
resources sharing to complement each other on the implementation of the
program, among other assistance and cooperation needed for the attainment of
the goals and objectives to prepare the energy sector on possible earthquake
hazards.
“What we lack in planning in the
past years is to have a grasp of the enormity of the potential impact of a
disaster before it happens. We need to be able to imagine based on science and
technology and engineering,” Solidum said.
With the partnership, the government
will be able to mitigate the impact of natural disasters as well as speed up
rehabilitation and restoration, especially in the power sector.
The partnership is also in line with
the DOE’s Department Circular No. 2018-01-0001 or the “Adoption of Energy
Resiliency in the Planning and Programming of the Energy Sector to Mitigate
Potential Impacts of Disasters” also known as the Energy Resiliency Policy.
Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi said
the agency is aiming to promote energy resiliency after President Duterte made
several pronouncements on improving the disaster resiliency of the country.
In particular, the magnitude 6.5
earthquake that happened in the Visayas last year exposed the vulnerability of
the country’s energy systems.
“In an event like this, the
department’s task is to ensure that energy services are restored at the soonest
possible time. For this reason, we need all available tools and technologies to
enhance our resiliency planning and implementation,” he said.
“Our partnership will bring us
closer to achieving an energy sector that is sustainable and able to withstand
and quickly recover from the impacts of human-induced and natural hazards,” he
said.
Meanwhile, Solidum said the DOST has
made available different products to determine the viability of the location
for power facilities, nuclear plants in particular.
“If you want to build a nuclear
plant, you can use REDAS to find the different hazards, whether there’s a fault
or you can use the Phivolcs fault finder app,” he said.
The location of the mothballed
Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP), in particular, is safe based on assessment
of the DOST.
“There was planning in the BNPP but
there are many other issues. But focusing on locational hazards, the location
of the BNPP is one of the safest,” Solidum said.
Nuclear experts – composed of
Russian state-owned Rosatom State Atomic Energy Corp., Slovenia’s Gen Enerjia
and global engineering firm Worley Parsons – have said the BNPP can still be
rehabilitated but the DOE will wait for the national nuclear policy before
deciding whether it should proceed with the rehabilitation program.
The 620-megawatt BNPP was built
during the Marcos administration to supply additional power by replacing aging
power plants.
However, it was not operated when
the late president Corazon Aquino took over the presidency, which caused
widespread blackouts during the late ’80s and early ’90s.
Proposals to operate the country’s
only nuclear plant were thumbed down due to strong opposition from
environmental and cause-oriented groups over safety concerns. The country
further went on undeclared moratorium for nuclear power plants following the
Fukushima incident in Japan in 2011.
No comments:
Post a Comment