Power stakeholders move to avert energy crisis

The government is meeting with power industry officials next week to map out a plan to avert a crisis brought about by the El Niño weather pattern, Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes said on Thursday. Power coming from hydroelectric facilities is cheaper than other sources, but the government may have to obtain it from other sources given the threat of a prolonged dry spell. Half of Mindanao’s power supply is drawn from hydroelectric resources. The Visayas is also facing power shortage, while the Luzon grid is will need more of it in the near term. On Thursday, Reyes met with power plant owners to get assurance that the recent brownouts would not happen again. "It was the consensus that the causes of the brownouts were the scheduled maintenance shutdowns and the unexpected outages of major generating plants," e said. Affected plants were the 600-megawatt (MW) coal-fired Sual Unit 1 in Pangasinan, the 620 MW Limay Plant in Bataan, and the 300-MW coal-fired Calaca unit in Batangas. Thursday’s meeting was attended by officials of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines, National Power Corp., Philippine Electricity Market Corp., Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corporation (PSALM), Energy Regulatory Commission, TeaM Energy, and of San Miguel Energy Corporation. According to Reyes, the SMEC had committed to speed up the delivery of coal and maintain inventory at Sual. It has also promised to hasten the recommissioning of the Limay combined-cycle plant. Attached agencies of the Energy department were urged to monitor the power situation especially during the election period. — GMANews.TV