The Department of Energy (DOE) said there will be no power supply deficiencies during the election week next year but held that the reserves are low for the said period.
Citing the base case prepared by the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP), the DOE said even if power reserves are low during the election week, it will not even qualify for any alert levels.
“The reason for the thinning reserves during April, May and June, especially in May 19, 20, 21, 22 and 23… Its because as NGCP explained, because of higher demand and lack of water for the hydro plants. We are coordinating closely and monitoring the situation as we have to make sure that we continue or maintain the current scenario through proper coordination and cooperation,” said DOE undersecretary William Fuentebella in a briefing yesterday.
Fuentebella said since there are many “moving parts” involved in projecting power and demand supply, scenario- building and continuous updating of all stakeholders are needed to keep the projections as accurate as possible.
NGCP said apart from the base case that considers projected demand and available supply while considering there will be no unforced plant shutdowns during the summer peak, it also provided other scenario projections to the DOE.
Meanwhile, Fuentebella said the circular issued by the DOE in 2018 during the synchronized Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections will again be utilized for next year to assure power supply security.
In the same briefing, Manila Electric Co. spokesman Joe Zaldarriaga said they have contingency plans in case there are outages within their franchise area during the elections.
“Historically, we have had no major problems during election period… Just to cite our historical actions during elections, before the actual election day, we make sure our facilities are ready to respond to any emergency. We have strategically located crews on standby as well as generator sets and in case of isolated interruptions, we are ready to respond accordingly,” Zaldarriaga said.
As for the National Electrification Administration, deputy administrator for technical services Artis Nikki Tortola, said electric cooperatives are already doing pre-maintenance activities even before the elections to ensure reliability will be maximized especially on polling precints and other critical areas.
Philippine Independent Power Producers Association Inc. executive director Anne Estorco-Montelibano said power plant generators are striving to maintain power plants on time but appealed for assistance from the Department of Foreign Affairs in the processing of the documents of foreign technical experts for their entry to the Philippines amid the pandemic.
Senate committee on energy chairman Sherwin Gatchalian earlier criticized the DOE for its lack of any categorical statement in ensuring the sufficiency of power supply during the election day and thereafter.
“We already saw that every summer, there are always threats of power supply issues so as early as now we should already be doing steps. For example, the fastest is scheduling. Our power plants should be repaired as early as now, procure the spare parts so that come summer time, power supply will be more stable,” Gatchalian said.
