Recent News
Power May Worsen
By Donnabelle Gatdula
Philippine Daily Inquirer
Updated 12:00AM January 29, 2010
MANILA, Philippines - The power supply problem in the country may worsen because of the El Niño phenomenon, Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes warned yesterday.
Because of below normal rainfall, hydroelectric plants, which generate most of the country’s power requirement, are suffering outages.
Electricity generated from hydroelectric plants is cheaper, but during the dry spell, the government may need to get power from other sources.
Half of Mindanao’s power supply, which is drawn from hydroelectric plants, is expected to be affected because of reduced rainfall. Visayas power plants are now suffering from power shortage, while the Luzon grid is seen to need additional power soon.
Reyes said he is meeting with industry players next week to discuss the effect of the dry spell on power generation. He also said all attached agencies of the Department of Energy (DOE) are asked to monitor the power situation.
On Monday, Metro Manila and nearby provinces experienced a rotating brownout because of scheduled maintenance shutdowns and unexpected power outages in major power plants.
“It was the consensus that the causes of the brownouts were the scheduled maintenance shutdowns and the unexpected outages of major generating plants specifically the 600 MW coal-fired Sual Unit 1 in Pangasinan, the 620 MW combined-cycle Limay Plant in Bataan, and the 300 MW coal-fired Calaca unit in Batangas,” Reyes said.
Reyes said San Miguel Energy Corp., which runs the Sual plant, promised to hasten coal delivery to maintain a sufficient power generation level.
Reyes said the National Grid Corp. has also directed to make sure there is sufficient transmission capacity to accommodate the required dispatchable reserve.
Meanwhile, Nacionalista Party senatorial candidate Ramon Mitra said the Philippines needs to invest in new power plants and rehabilitate existing ones to maintain sufficient power generation.
Mitra, former director of Philippine National Oil Co. (PNOC), said the prevailing brownouts in Luzon signal that the government needs focus on power supply problems.
“This is a serious matter, rotating brownouts are cause for alarm and we need to look into this and make it a priority in the next administration,” he said.
“We need to give incentives to investments and good performances in services, we need to be decisive in these things because brownouts are serious cause for alarm especially in a thriving economy,” he added.
In a related development, consumer group National Association of Electricity Consumers for Reforms (NASECORE) has asked Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) to review its Independent Power Producer (IPP) Administrator’s Agreement with San Miguel Energy for its operation of the coal-fired Sual plant.
In a letter to PSALM on 27 January 2010, NASECORE president Pete Ilagan said it was not only SMEC’s Sual Plant 1 that was troubled last Monday. Its Sual Plant II was also offline because of inadequate coal supply.
Ilagan requested PSALM, “to review its IPP Administration Agreement with San Miguel Corporation and if the findings so warrant, to immediately cancel the IPPA agreement and take over the operations of Sual plants until such time that a new IPP Administrator qualifies and to impose the corresponding penalties for such power outage in order to protect the end-users from the damage done upon them.”
The coal-fired Sual plant was awarded by PSALM to the San Miguel Energy as the IPP Administrator in August 2009.
“The unfortunate incident on January 25, 2010 puts now to question both the transfer and control by PSALM of the IPP contract to San Miguel Corporation and its capability as the Administrator of the two Sual plants for its failure to maintain Sual I plant in good condition and its glaring negligence in ensuring adequate level of coal supply inventory to make Sual II plant online. Undoubtedly, these were the reasons for the power outage last Monday,” Ilagan said in his letter.
TeaM Energy, the firm that runs the Sual plant said the running unit, Sual 1, tripped on Monday due to a “feed water pump trouble,” resulting in blackout from 1:40 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. in Metro Manila and nearby areas.
Ilagan said there may be a collusion among power players and some government energy agencies to deliberately put offline some generation plants to make it appear that there is a power shortage as this will easily condition the minds of electricity end-users of an inevitable electricity rate increases.
Ilagan said that while PSALM claims success in its ongoing privatization efforts, the cost of electricity continues to go up, putting the consumers at a “loss.”
“To protect consumers from the damage done on them, PSALM should forfeit the performance bond of SMC, if it has,” Ilagan added.
“We must raise our vigilance,” Ilagan said.
PSALM, a government-owned-and-controlled corporation, was created by the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001 (EPIRA) for the principal purpose of managing the orderly sale, disposition, and privatization of Napocor generation assets, real estate and other disposable assets, and IPP contracts.
Reference:
Pete Ilagan
President
NASECORE
Mobile - 09178461299