THE Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) has asked the Department of Energy (DOE) to postpone its competitive selection process (CSP) at a later date due to the volatility in fuel prices and issues in representations for bids.
“The volatility is so high that it would be difficult for us to have a proper valuation of the COE (certificate of exemption) which is the distinguishing criteria to determine who will win in the CSP. We have to wait for the response of DOE in our request,” said Ray Espinosa, Meralco’s president and chief executive officer.
Espinosa said at a virtual conference on Monday, the enhanced community quarantine prevents the company from holding face-to-face meetings with the bidders and from receiving voluminous documents for thes bid.
He said the company is awaiting the decision of the DOE on the request.
Delay
Meanwhile, Meralco PowerGen Corp. (MGen), renewable energy projects originally targeted to be completed within the year will be delayed.
Rogelio Singson, MGen’s president and chief executive officer, said in the same briefing PowerSource First Bulacan Solar Inc.’s 50 megawatts (MW) P4.25-billion solar power project in San Miguel, Bulacan will be gravely affected.
Commercial operations was originally set date by end 2020 but the delivery of the solar panels had been delayed. The engineering, procurement and construction since the contractor, which is based in China, was also affected by the lockdown.
“We have been given partial authority to restart work there because we wanted to do advance works on the drainage of the site so that when the rains come, we will just be ready to mount the panels,” Singson said,
Power interruptions
Meanwhile, Meralco said 47 unnecessary power interruptions occurred from March 16 to April 15 were caused by kites and foreign object.
These interruptions have affected 708,805 customers — 13 of which are frontline hospitals and medical facilities.
Meralco said several barangays in Quezon City, Bulacan, Valenzuela, Caloocan, Tondo, Marikina, Angono, Paranaque and Taguig have experienced power trips due to foreign objects’ entanglement in power lines.
The power distributor appealed to the public to refrain from flying kites close to power lines as entanglements are causing blackouts to hospitals performing critical work during the COVID-19 crisis.
Besides kites, other foreign objects such as posters, clothing, and building materials, are also getting entangled.
“Let’s refrain from doing that (kite-flying)…It’s causing problems not just for us at Meralco, but more importantly for the people who are depending on Meralco’s continued services, especially vital facilities like hospitals,) said Joe Zaldarriaga, Meralco Public Information head and spokesperson.
The power utility regularly informs customers about the problems caused by line entanglements all the way down to the barangay level.
A reported 260 kites per day are still being retrieved from power lines since the Luzon-wide enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) measures were implemented; with power interruptions due to the entanglements rising significantly this April.
Meralco sai this seemingly harmless summer pastime can also lead to electrocution as high voltage electricity can travel down kite strings.
When Meralco linemen are forced to make line repairs in areas of high COVID-19 incidence, they may be exposed to the virus and inadvertently spreading an infection wherever else they go.
