DOE assures power supply for automated polls in May

MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Energy (DOE) gave assurances on Wednesday that there will be an adequate supply of electricity during the elections in May.

DOE Electric Power Industry Management Bureau director Mario Marasigan said there is enough energy supply in Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao on the day of the elections, which requires electricity because of the automated voting system.

“By the time that it is already the election, we expect that there will be no problem as far as supply is concerned…[We have enough supply] and even ample reserves,” Marasigan said when asked by Senator Sherwin Gatchalian during the Senate energy committee hearing on initial public offering and regulatory rate reset.

“Based on our previous experiences, we don’t see any problem during the election day because there are no commercial and industrial operations and our expectations for the demand will be way below than the normal working hour or day,” Marasigan added.

Marasigan said new power generation facilities are currently being tested to help increase the energy supply in the country.

Enough energy during El Niño season

The peak of the demand for electricity, which is expected to reach 11,400 megawatts, will be on the week following the elections, according to Marasigan.

He said there will be ample supply of energy during the El Niño season when consumer demand also increases.

On Tuesday, energy demand reached 10,267 megawatts.

While the energy department is not expecting supply to reach yellow alert, Marasigan disclosed that the power reserves had been reduced over the last three days due to unplanned outages from four facilities in the country. /ee