SENATOR Risa Hontiveros on Wednesday challenged the Department of Energy (DOE), the Energy Regulatory Commission, and the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) to demonstrate the foresight and competence needed to address the power supply shortages all over the country.
This comes as the senator expressed deep disappointment over the “continued failure” to solve the escalating energy issues, especially this summer, when their primary mandates tell them to ensure adequacy of supply and reliability of the system.
“Parang kulang sa energy ang mismong Department of Energy at puro kabig naman ang NGCP. DOE’s mandate demands foresight and competence to ensure adequacy of current and future power supply while the NGCP secures the whole system from disturbances, including unplanned and forced outages. Proactive tayo dapat,” Hontiveros said.
“They cannot go on giving us nothing. Kumilos naman sila,” she added.
Hontiveros then strongly recommended that the DOE readopt a “proven industry-standard method” that had already been used even before the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) was enacted.
“Energy experts I have spoken with say that the DOE is so much better off using computations through loss of load probability (LOLP), and it is one they are already familiar with. LOLP has a distinct advantage when it comes to forecasting power supply availability. Right now, the agency is computing with a fixed 25 percentage reserve, but it hasn’t been reliable, especially during this summer season,” Hontiveros explained.
The LOLP is a measure of the reliability performance of the power supply system that forecasts the number of days when a brownout could occur in a year.
“Kung ginamit lang ng DOE ang LOLP, nalaman sana nito ang kinakailangang dagdag na capacity para hindi lalagpas sa isang araw kada taon ang may brownout imbes na halos araw-araw may yellow at red alert. DOE must reevaluate their methodology,” Hontiveros said.
Hontiveros prodded the DOE to tap experts who could help it reimplement the LOLP in planning the country’s power supply.
“Hindi sapat magdasal para hindi mag-shut down ang mga power plants natin, kailangang kumilos ang DOE batay sa probabilidad at pleksibilidad na maaring gawin in anticipation of a crisis situation,” Hontiveros said. “Dapat real planning for real development. Sabi nga, nasa Diyos ang awa, nasa tao ang gawa.”
For NGCP, Hontiveros reiterated her call to prioritize system security rather than ensure bountiful harvest of dividends at the end of the fiscal year. The Senator cited the April data provided by TransCo showing the NGCP contracting on firm basis only 46% of regulating reserves, 47% for contingency reserves, and 28% dispatchable reserves.
“Bakit hindi 100%? Pareho din lang ba sila sa DOE na nagdadasal na walang titirik na planta along the way?” Hontiveros asked.
