THE Department of Energy (DOE) said at least 10 percent of oil stations nationwide – or about 900 –were forced to temporarily stop operations due to low demand following the imposition of the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) in several areas.
There are about 9,003 service stations nationwide
“At least 10 percent of oil retailers especially in areas not frequented by people due to the ECQ (were closed) since ther are no customers. It is better commercially for them to temporarily stop operations,” said DOE Secretary Alfonso Cusi in a virtual press conference on Saturday.
Cusi said despite the low oil price regime in the world market, local oil players assure their services will continue in the country.
“In the international market, oil price has gone down and even experience a negative price. There is no storage left for oil supplies and it is expensive to stop oil wells… Like generation companies, they are allowed with continuous operation since it is hard to shut them down and restart them at a later time. Services of gas stations will continue and we assure that there is enough supply,” Cusi said.
Last month, the DOE directed all Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) participants to adhere to existing rules and regulations after some participants requested to shut down some of their generating units for economic reasons due to the significant decline in electricity demand of the Luzon and Visayas grids.
In a memo, Cusi reiterated that WESM participants shall continue to operate normally unless there are circumstances that warrant the imposition of intervention or suspension.
He said no generation company shall be allowed to shut down their generating units for purposes other than planned maintenance, forced outages due to technical problems or as may be advised by the systems operator for purposes of balancing supply and demand due to excess generation.
The DOE said in case of excess generation, the market operator and the systems operator will closely coordinate and undertake mitigating measures to manage its likely effects to the grid.
The DOE’s memo came after San Miguel Corp. president and chief operating officer Ramon Ang called for the need to scale down power production to save on fuel to secure supply for the coming months.
Ang had said it would be prudent for power facilities to save as much fuel to ensure continuous operation and be prepared in case the situation worsens.
“If there is excess capacity today, particularly since major business and commercial centers and industries are practically shut down, then perhaps government can require power plants to only produce what is needed in order to save on fuel,” he said.
