BusinessMirror June 05, 2021

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ROTARY CLUB OF MANILA JOURNALISM AWARDS

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Saturday, June 5, 2021 Vol. 16 No. 234

EJAP JOURNALISM AWARDS

BUSINESS NEWS SOURCE OF THE YEAR (2017, 2018)

DEPARTMENT OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

2018 BANTOG MEDIA AWARDS

PHILIPPINE STATISTICS AUTHORITY

DATA CHAMPION

P25.00 nationwide | 16 pages | 7 DAYS A WEEK

JEFFREY THOMPSON | DREAMSTIME.COM

For the nth time, regulators, policy-makers and energy players try to provide answers to the power outages, but end up with more questions.

NO QUICK FIX T

By Lenie Lectura

HE Luzon grid should have been spared from brownouts during the summer months until June, the Department of Energy (DOE) had assured everyone in April. Fast forward, the opposite happened.

The recent power plant outages led to almost 4,000 megawatts (MW) in lost capacity, with 90 percent of the plant shutdowns unscheduled, leading lawmakers who held the April hearings asking, anyare? (what happened?) and those in charge tossing blame, as usual. Nearly 340,000 households from 90 barangays in 16 local government units lost their electricity on June 1. There were even two vaccination centers in Valenzuela that experienced power interruption. Businesses mightily struggling to recover from prolonged pandemic-induced shutdowns suffered serious effects from the rotational brownouts. Online classes were interrupted. Ironically, senators demanding answers were cut off from each other, as half were physically in the Senate building, and the rest— some of them suffered from the brownouts—were virtually present from home. Power-generation companies

(gencos), whose plants went on forced outage, were supposed to provide a seven-day notice to system operator National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) if they are going on emergency shutdown. But they did not comply, nor were they part of the annual scheduled maintenance shutdown. The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) thus summoned 17 gencos to explain why they should not be sanctioned. The Department of Energy (DOE) was not spared as the Senate Committee on Energy set a new inquiry on the recent spate of rotational brownouts. After all, it was the agency that gave assurances that there was no high risk of supply shortage during the summer season. Energy chief Alfonso Cusi insisted his office has not been remiss in its duties and that his team is on top of the situation by issuing several department circulars to ensure unimpeded power supply. These include: the Competitive Selection Process (CSP) pol-

PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 47.8060

icy so that Distribution Utilities (DUs) may already bid out their requirements for new investments to come in; the introduction of amendments to the market to allow more transparency in sending out investment signals; the moratorium on new coal-fired power plants to emphasize the need for system flexibility; Ancillary Services (AS) policies so that the NGCP will contract, on a firm basis, all AS requirements given that they must do forward-contracting of these requirements and not rely solely on what is available in the system; the introduction of the Reserves Market to co-optimize the utilization of energy and reserves. “I believe we, at the DOE, have done enough. We have laid down all the policies to ensure unimpeded power supply, but the problem is compliance. They don’t comply,” said Cusi. Gencos, except for those operating hydroelectric power plants, are not allowed by the DOE to conduct power plant maintenance during the peak quarter. They are also required to give NGCP their maintenance schedule a year ahead to ensure plant shutdowns are phased, and do not bunch up in one period. Some gencos caught the DOE’s ire because their maintenance activities were extended throughout the summer months. Not only did this violate a DOE circular, but also a directive from the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) pertaining

to the Reliability Performance Indices and Equivalent Outage Days Per Year of Generating Units. Being a performance issue, the DOE pointed out that it’s the ERC that should look into these outages and exercise its regulatory functions. They said that sanctions will be imposed when warranted and after observance of due process. “Based on the examination of our technical group, there are 17 gencos that have breached the maximum allowable unplanned outage days as of April 2021,” ERC chief Agnes Devanadera said. The ERC limits the number of days that power plants may undergo shutdowns, both planned and unplanned. This is meant to promote accountability among power plant operators and the transmission grid operator. The 17 gencos on the ERC list are Sem Calaca Power Corp. (SCPC), GN Power Mariveles Center Ltd. Co. (GMEC), Masinloc Power Partners Co. Ltd., Southwest Luzon Power Generation Corp., Team Sual Corp., SPC Power Corp., Panay Power Corp., SN Aboitiz PowerBenguet Inc., CBK Power Co. Ltd., SPC Island Power Corp., First Natgas Power Corp., FGP Corp., First Gas Power Corp., Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp., Energy Development Corp., Hedcor Bukidnon Inc.; and PSALM-Soosan ENS Co. Ltd. They were directed to submit their explanations within seven days.

Travel curbs

SOME explanations raised for extended plant outages are travel restrictions imposed on foreign nationals, and delays in the arrival of supplies and materials brought about by the pandemic. “Foreign technicians could not enter the country or their travel has been put on hold because of inward travel restrictions imposed by the IATF,” said Isidro Consunji of Sem Calaca Power in a text message. “So, many power plants are either delayed commissioning or

extended outage because of travel restrictions. It is difficult to get exemptions from IATF.” For this to be resolved, the DOE has endorsed their requests to government agencies like the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Bureau of Immigration, as well as to the Bureau of Customs. The NGCP appealed for understanding as the timeline of its vital transmission projects has been pushed back by the Covid-19 pandemic. Continued on A2

n JAPAN 0.4335 n UK 67.4351 n HK 6.1620 n CHINA 7.4650 n SINGAPORE 36.0121 n AUSTRALIA 36.6146 n EU 57.9791 n SAUDI ARABIA 12.7486

Source: BSP (June 4, 2021)


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