Aquino unhappy with Congress over emergency powers

MANILA, Philippines – President Benigno Aquino III on Tuesday, October 28, showed his displeasure over Congress’ refusal to grant him additional powers to buy or rent diesel generators that could provide about additional 300 megawatts of electric power in the summer.

“Congress has not given us that power as of yet. Of course, the emergency period or the critical period is from March, April, May, June and July next year. So that doesn’t seem to be an option at this point in time,” Aquino said when asked how the government is addressing the projected power shortfall early next year.

“Unfortunately, there is a need of six months to install these facilities (generators) to include all of the civil works attendant to it – fuel tanks, the ports that will service, etcetera,” Aquino said. 

Aquino said the government is now taking other measures to address the projected shortfall but he is worried. “So hopefully, all of these steps that are being undertaken and hopefully we will have a mild or non-existent El Niño situation next year, will not produce the emergency situation and that we will all have the necessary power,” Aquino said. 

Members of Congress, including administration allies, think that the projected shortfall could be addressed by the Interruptible Load Program (ILP), a scheme where energy users with large loads – such as business establishments and factories – will be required to run their standby generator sets to ease the demand for power from the grid during peak hours.

“Unfortunately, others are taking a more optimistic look that the Interruptible Load Program will suffice to carry us through,” Aquino lamented.

He added: “The main issue is really the occurrence of forced outages and the graphs presented by the Department of Energy point out that there is really a substantial danger and that there are too many of these; some of the newer plants were not producing the rated capacity they have been derated. And we would not want to be able to say that we prepared for the worst and we hoped for the best.”

Senate committee on enery chairman Senator Sergio Osmeña III said there’s enough megawattage available in the private sector to address the shortfall. He noted that the Energy Regulatory Commission has registered 3,169 megawatts for Luzon “for generating units from 1 megawatt and above.” (READ: Osmeña computation shows no need for emergency powers and ‘Manila should do better than Cebu in solving power shortage’)

The President is not convinced the ILP is enough. “My caution was these backup generators are precisely that – backup generators, not base load plants.  I’m just trying to give you the picture as I see it so as not to raise false hopes,” Aquino said.

Aquino added: “The reason we wanted the plants, the base load plants, was precisely because they have demonstrated capability to produce the attendant power. Unfortunately, the cost is also high; between 6 to 12 billion pesos of something that we hope we will not utilize. But it is better to have and not need than to need and not have.”

Aquino wanted to play safe. He explained: “The main issue is really the occurrence of forced outages and the graphs presented by the Department of Energy point out that there is really a substantial danger and that there are too many of these; some of the newer plants were not producing the rated capacity they have been derated. And we would not want to be able to say that we prepared for the worst and we hoped for the best.”

In a Senate hearing on the country’s power situation, Osmeña earlier noted the same inclination from Department of Energy (DOE). But playing it too safe, the senator said, means unnecessary cost to the government.

The government has decided to run Malaya 1 and 2 during the period of shortfall. But Aquino noted that these are old plants that cannot operate in full capacity. – Rappler.com