DOE assures sufficient power supply in summer 2022

Zamboanga City 2nd District Rep. Manuel Jose Dalipe.
From the Facebook post of Zamboanga City Rep. Jose Manuel Dalipe.

MANILA, Philippines — Contrary to the power outages experienced earlier this year, the Department of Energy (DOE) assured Thursday that there will be “sufficient” power supply for the hot season in 2022.

Zamboanga City 2nd District Rep. Manuel Jose Dalipe, who was sponsoring the proposed 2022 budget of the DOE, made the assurance as concerns over the sufficiency of power supply rise anew—with the summer season coinciding with next year’s national elections.

“The DOE reiterates its assurance that we will have sufficient power come summertime 2022,” Dalipe said.

According to Dalipe, the country has a projected reserve of 1,800 megawatts come May 2022 which also covers the hot season typically during the first half of the year.

Aside from this, Dalipe said the DOE also expects an additional 300 megawatts from the Malaya power plant and another 150 megawatts from Ingrid power plant.

The additional power supply from Malaya is expected to be available towards the end of 2021 while Ingrid is already undergoing testing and will be on line “anytime soon”, said Dalipe.

The DOE earlier assured lawmakers that there would be no power outages before, during, and after the May 2022 national elections.

Energy Undersecretary Felix William Fuentebella said during the DOE’s budget deliberations at the House of Representatives that initial assessments from the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) did not show any problems that the country may encounter during the election period.

JPV