Senate OKs reso to address power crisis on 2nd reading

MANILA, Philippines – The Senate on Wednesday approved on second reading a joint resolution authorizing President Benigno Aquino III to address the projected “electricity imbalance” in the Luzon grid.

Senate Joint  Resolution 12  was the chamber’s response to the President’s request last September 2014 to the two chambers of Congress for authority  to establish additional generating capacity, citing the projected “critical electricity situation” in the summer of 2015 in Luzon.

The President, under the measure, will be authorized to address the projected imbalance of the supply and demand for electricity in the Luzon grid, especially in 2015 and 2016 under certain conditions.

Senator Sergio Osmeña, chair of the Senate committee on energy, said the peak demand in 2015 for the Luzon grid will occur around the summer months of March, April and May. On the very hottest day or two, he said, it was expected to reach 9,000 MW.

“The Grid Code mandates that the sector should have a margin of safety, a reserve level of about 1,650 MW to cover fluctuations in supply and cover for plants that are under scheduled maintenance or suffer unscheduled breakdowns,”  Osmeña said when he endorsed the measure for plenary debates early this month.

“The various Energy agencies and stakeholders confirm that the level of dependable capacity would be 10,700 MW. However, on certain very hot days, the reserve level would not be enough to cover demand spikes or the more than expected breakdowns,” he said.

But instead of applying the solution proposed by the Department of Energy to lease 300 MW in generating sets at a cost of P6 billion for 2 years or P 10 million per megawatt a year, the senator said his committee recommended the adoption of the Interruptible Load Program (ILP) program, which has been applied in Mindanao and Cebu since 2010.

“This is the program we shall apply to Luzon as a temporary measure during the short periods of electricity in 2015 and 2016 and whenever they occur,”   he said.

Osmeña said the proposed measure would “alleviate the impending power shortage “at least cost to the Filipino. And would enable government to keep its word that it would not compete with the investors in the generating sector.”