Aquino misled on power situation–Osmeña

MANILA, Philippines–Sen. Sergio Osmeña III on Thursday said he didn’t feel any pressure to pass this year a Senate resolution granting President Aquino emergency powers to avert a power shortage this coming summer.

The chair of the Senate energy committee said the President was being “misled” on the power situation in Luzon.

“There is no time to pass it this year. And besides, it is completely unnecessary anyway. We’ll just pass it next year. If it were necessary, we would have passed it already,” he told reporters.

Senator Sergio Osmeña III. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

Study resolution

Osmeña said he had yet to study the House Joint Resolution No. 21 granting Aquino powers to facilitate the “expeditious acquisition” of additional power generating capacities.

“I don’t know what they mean by additional generating capacity and I don’t know how that resolution would bring it about,” he told reporters. “I don’t know what they are authorizing the President to do.”

The projected power crisis in the Luzon grid from March to July next year is estimated at 1,004 megawatts.

Under the House resolution, the additional generating capacity would come from the Interruptible Load Program (ILP), fast-tracking of committed projects, and plants for interconnection and rehabilitation.

The ILP pools together the excess power capacity of generators owned by major industrial and commercial entities. The ILP providers would be reimbursed by the government and the payment would be exempt from the value-added tax.

Osmeña said tapping ILP providers would not require emergency powers.

No need for special powers

“The ILPs do not need special powers. The ERC’s ILP program is already in place in Cebu and Davao since 2010 because we were suffering brownouts in Cebu and Davao. So we used the ILP. We did not ask for special powers. We did not ask for money. It is automatic and it works very well,” he said.

Since the ILP was in place, there was no pressure for the Senate to adopt the resolution, the senator said.

“I don’t know what is the emergency power because everything seems to be in place. The ILP is in place,” Osmeña said. “And in the ILP alone we can already access 1,000 MW… So we will have sufficient power to say that our reserve of 1,600 MW will be covered.”

Osmeña, however, has a resolution in mind.

This resolution grants the President powers to exempt the 1,200-MW Ilijan power plant from the Biofuels Act since it takes days to clean up the natural gas plant after using biofuels, and to use the Malampaya Fund for the storage of diesel for the same plant and dredge the Pasig River to improve fuel delivery to the 300-MW Malaya power plant in Rizal province.

“We can pass the resolution authorizing that even in February. They will be perfectly fine,” the senator said.