No Luzon brownouts in April even without Aquino emergency powers – solon

THERE will be no brownout in Luzon until the end of April even without President Aquino’s special powers to avert a looming energy shortage this dry season, a lawmaker said Tuesday.

Oriental Mindoro Rep. Reynaldo Umali, chairman of the House of Representatives energy committee, said in an ambush interview that the energy supply in the Luzon grid remained sufficient at 1,500 megawatts (MW) to stave off brownouts.

“We’re happy to announce that from March 15 up to the present, we have not had any brownouts… We have not yet even tapped the Interruptible Load Program (ILP) of 1,100 MW… and we have not spent a single centavo in addressing the crisis,” Umali said, referring to the program under the President’s emergency powers that would seek to offload energy from big businesses to free up the grid to give electricity to ordinary consumers.

Businesses under the ILP would use privately owned generators to free up the grid in times of peak demand.

Umali said the power supply remained stable even after the Malampaya shutdown from March 15 to April 14, which usually signals the start of thinning power reserve.

When asked if the sufficient energy reserve would mean there is no longer a need for the emergency powers, which is still under bicameral conference, Umali said: “In a way, yes.”

The lawmaker who co-chairs the Joint Congressional Power Committee maintained that he would still fight for the House version of the presidential emergency powers, which does not impose pass on charges to consumers unlike the Senate version.

“I’m not closing the door on the special powers because no pass on ‘yan. Kung sinarado ko na ‘yan, ibig sabihin, pass on na tayong lahat, because that is the default,” Umali said.

He said the bill should not impose charges on consumers to avoid a repeat of the 2013 Malampaya shutdown which spiked prices allegedly due to collusion among power players to shut down their plants while Malampaya repairs were taking place.

The Energy Regulatory Commission then drew the public ire for allowing Manila Electric Company’s P4.15/kWh power rate hike, said to be the country’s highest power adjustment, until the Supreme Court issued a temporary restraining order.

The hike was supposedly due to higher priced electricity at the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market, allegedly the result of the collusion of the power generators.

“The people will feel better if alam nila na the law itself has no pass on provision. Baka magkaroon ng collusion dyan if power plants conk out again, and we have a problem if this passes on to consumers,” Umali said.

The House and Senate are at odds in its bicameral conference of the bill seeking to grant Aquino’s emergency powers to contract additional capacity to address the anticipated power shortage.

While the House wants to source the subsidies from the Malampaya fund, the Senate wishes to charge consumers for the implementation of the ILP, with Senator Serge Osmeña saying the cost may be at P4 centavos per kilowatt hour.

“We remain hopeful that our Senate counterpart will see the light and unburden these people,” Umali said.

Under the emergency powers, other proposed solutions besides the ILP are the fast tracking of committed projects and plants for interconnection and rehabilitation.

The resolution stemmed from the request of the energy department to grant the president emergency powers for additional capacity to address the looming thinning power supply in Luzon this summer.

Granting presidential emergency powers is mandated under the Electric Power Industry Reform Act.

The summer power shortage is attributed to the looming El Niño phenomenon, the maintenance shutdown of the Malampaya power plan, increased or continuing outages of power plants, and the delay in commissioning of committed power projects.