Hontiveros asks gov’t to address power woes: ‘Parang kulang sa energy’

 

MANILA, Philippines — Senator Risa Hontiveros on Wednesday challenged concerned Philippine government agencies to finally address the country’s power supply shortage.

At the end of Hontiveros’ call was the Department of Energy, the Energy Regulatory Commission, and the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines.

“Parang kulang sa energy ang mismong Department of Energy at puro kabig naman ang NGCP. DOE’s mandate demands foresight and competence to ensure adequacy of current and future power supply while the NGCP secures the whole system from disturbances, including unplanned and forced outages. Proactive tayo dapat,” Hontiveros said in a statement.

(It seems like the Department of Energy itself lacks energy while NGCP is full of mere plans.)

Hontiveros suggested that DOE “readopt” what she called a “proven industry-standard method” even before the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) was enacted.

“Energy experts I have spoken with say that the DOE is so much better off using computations through loss of load probability (LOLP), and it is one they are already familiar with. LOLP has a distinct advantage when it comes to forecasting power supply availability. Right now, the agency is computing with a fixed 25 percentage reserve, but it hasn’t been reliable, especially during this summer season,” Hontiveros explained.

According to Hontiveros, if the DOE had only used LOLP, it would have known the necessary additional capacity so that brownouts do not exceed one day per year instead of yellow and red alerts almost every day.

“Hindi sapat magdasal para hindi mag-shut down ang mga power plants natin, kailangang kumilos ang DOE batay sa probabilidad at pleksibilidad na maaring gawin in anticipation of a crisis situation,” Hontiveros said.

(It is not enough to pray that our power plants will not shut down, the DOE must act based on the probability and flexibility that can be done in anticipation of a crisis situation.)