Published
By MYRNA M. VELASCO
The Department of
Energy (DOE) assured consumers of “enough power supply,” but it stopped short
of admitting that the country’s electricity system is actually on “life
support” and can only be saved by “band aid measures” especially during the
critical months of April, May and June.
That then prompted
energy officials to scramble for stop-gap remedies so they can spare consumers
from agonizing rolling brownouts as demand peaks on higher consumption for
airconditioning during the summer months.
Various stakeholders of the energy sector – including the National Grid
Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP), the electric cooperatives, and the
operator of the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM), which all have direct
touch of the operations of the power system, already presented more forthright
assumptions on supply-demand conditions during the summer months – aptly
cautioning that there would be periods when supply will reach critical levels
resulting in brownouts, especially if these are compounded by forced outages of
power plants.
But on the part of the
DOE, it tended to sugar coat the scenario – although that comes with fervent
appeal to consumers to save on their energy usage, which is more akin to asking
the Filipino people to temporarily give up the comforts of modern life just to
save their faces from not being confronted with power interruptions.
Alongside the plea for
energy conservation, the DOE also indicated that it will be asking the
interruptible load program (ILP) to be activated, which is parallel to having
an oxygen tank so the power system can breath from lack of supply.
The ILP is a government-sanctioned program that requires end-users with
generating sets to switch these on and they shall be compensated for running
these facilities.
At some point, the DOE
admitted that it would be the unplanned outages of power plants that will
primarily plunge Luzon grid into brownouts – without it emphasizing that in a
prudent, well-run electricity systems, the allowance for such forced outages
shall actually be accounted for in the required 20 to 30-percent level of
reserves that a power system must strive to sustain.
And manifestly, the DOE
has not given assumptions on forced outages of power plants – considering that
this is a recurrent problem of the power system for several years already.
The department emphasized
that the peak demand for Luzon grid this year is projected to reach 12,285
megawatts; the Visayas grid at 2,519MW; and Mindanao at 2,278MW.
Power demand growth on
a yearly basis had been set at 5.0 to 6.0-percent.
“While there is enough power capacity at present, depending on the volume of forced outages, yellow and/or red alerts may be raised,” the energy department noted.
“While there is enough power capacity at present, depending on the volume of forced outages, yellow and/or red alerts may be raised,” the energy department noted.
Beyond ILP as well as
energy efficiency and conservation, the other band-aid measures being pursued
by the DOE would include net metering for consumers who opted to power their
homes or businesses with solar installations; and via the initiative of NGCP,
the industry will also be administering ILP programs for directly connected
customers at economic zones.
Energy Undersecretary
Felix William Fuentebella said “these are just contingency measures in the
event of forced outages, which are outside of the department’s control and
cannot accurately forecast.”
Apart from shaky power
supply, consumers will also need to deal with new shocks of probable spikes in
electricity prices during the summer months.
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