Leyte asks for exemption

MANILA, Philippines - The possibility of power interruptions may be lessened with the continued rains, the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) said.

A source from the NGCP said that if the cooler weather persists, the agency foresees no drain in the electricity reserves of Luzon for the week.

"Next week we foresee little drain in reserves of electricity due to the lower demand for electricity and also with many more of our power plants coming on line especially if the rains continue," said the source in an interview with BusinessWorld.

The source added that if the temperature goes down, the electricity demand goes down by as much as 400 megawatts (MW).

Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) spokesperson Joe R. Zaldariaga said the company is looking at the sufficiency of supply to determine power interruptions.

"We won’t be resorting to any power interruptions if the supply is sufficient to meet the demands," he said.

Last week, several power plants in Luzon went offline due to repairs and maintenance and caused distribution utilities like Meralco to prepare for possible power interruptions. These were the 600-megawatt (MW) Masinloc power plant in Zambales, the 500-MW San Lorenzo power plant in Batangas, the 620-MW Limay combined-cycle plant in Bataan, the 345-MW San Roque hydro-power plant in Pangasinan and the 650-MW Malaya thermal power plant in Rizal.

However, lower power demand held the power interruptions at bay. The power plants have since come back on line.

"Many of the hydropower plants are going online too because of the rains and that helps," said the NGCP source.

Hydropower plants like the Magat power plant are already available for power generation. SN Aboitiz Power-Magat, Inc. spokesperson Mike Hosillos earlier said water elevation was steady and sufficient for power generation and both Magat and Binga power plants could be expected to contribute substantial capacities for power supply in the Luzon grid.

The NGCP, however, refrained from saying that there would be no more brownouts in the coming week because "it is difficult to speculate."

As of yesterday, available capacity for Luzon was at 7,288 MW with a peak load of 5,872 MW and gross reserves of 1,416.

Meanwhile, local officials in Tacloban City, Leyte said they should be exempted from the rotational outages.

Leyte Governor Carlos Jericho L. Petilla and electric cooperatives in the province have been consulting with the Department of Energy, NGCP, National Power Corp. and the independent power producers to place Leyte at the bottom of the list of areas that will be affected in case of a power shortage.

"Leyte is the source and we have to get the privilege of [having no brownouts], being the host province. We are happy that key energy players are positive to find a solution," Mr. Petilla said.

The Leyte Geothermal Production Field, which is the country’s biggest geothermal project and acclaimed as the world’s largest wet steam field, generates about 60% of the company’s geothermal output. It is located in a 107,625-hectare field in Ormoc City and Kananga, Leyte.

The 4 plants have a combined installed capacity of 700.9 megawatts to supply the energy requirements in parts of the Visayas and Luzon. Mr. Petilla said that under the Electric Power Industry Reform Act, 25% of the power produced should be retained in the host community.

"Our consumption doesn’t even reach 25%. It is only 15%, Mr. Petilla said. "If Leyte has its own grid, we would be paying only for our own generation charges, our own transmission charges and not carry the burden for costs of transmission to other regions," he added