DoE to Meralco: Craft power demand plan
Credit to Author: Jordeene B. Lagare| Date: Tue, 03 Dec 2019 16:19:30 +0000
THE Department of Energy (DoE) has asked the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) to craft a plan to keep up with increasing electricity demand, its top official said.
“In fact, I have written [a letter to] Meralco. I’m asking them on what are their measures to make sure they can cope up with the increase in demand, and that there is an assurance of supply,” Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi said during Monday’s press briefing of the 2019 National Energy Consciousness Month at the agency’s headquarters in Taguig City.
“I asked them how will they cover for the increased demand in their franchise area sa (this coming) summer and [in] the coming years,” Cusi told reporters.
The Energy chief also posed the same question to electric cooperatives across the country.
The demand for power, he said, is increasing, which is “good and bad” for the country.
“[It is] good because it means the economy is improving [and there are] more activities.
[On the other hand, it is] bad, dahil kailangan paspasan ang pag-build ng capacity (because we need to work double time to build more capacity), and it’s not that easy,” Cusi added.
To ensure energy security in the country, the Energy department intends to promote the construction of power plants ahead of time, even without a power supply agreement (PSA).
“We have been promoting for merchant plants. We want those constructed ahead as merchants to be able to participate in the CSP [competitive selection process]. We don’t like to limit it only to the power plants to be built,” Cusi said.
“We would like to allow, as long as they don’t have [a] PSA, no obligation and they are only trading in the electricity market. They should be allowed to participate. Wala namang sigurong masama dun (I guess there’s nothing wrong with that),” he added.
In a move to secure additional supply for its customers, Meralco conducted in September three competitive biddings covering 2,900 megawatts (MW) of power supply in compliance with the DoE’s circular mandating distribution utilities to subject power deals to such biddings.
Only the bidding for the 1,200-MW supply coming from a greenfield power plant, or a power facility that is yet to be constructed, has been conducted but failed.
Cusi reiterated the agency’s previous stance that Meralco must let more entities to participate in the second round of CSP to promote open and transparent public bidding.
The DoE sought to tweak Meralco’s terms of reference for the bidding of 1,200 MW in power supply.
“Instead of [sourcing the supply from] one 1,200 MW, one single plant, we want to allow aggregation of stacking, smaller plants put together to equal 1,200 MW. There are advantages, of course, there are arguments,” he explained.
But Meralco had stressed it won’t incorporate all the changes proposed by DoE for the procurement of power supply, noting the financial and economic differences between brownfield (supply from existing power facilities) and greenfield.
Groups air their side
Meanwhile, the Power for People Coalition (P4P) recently filed a petition for intervention at the Energy Regulatory Commission to question the outcome of Meralco’s other CSPs.
“We filed a petition for intervention to ensure that consumers’ voices are heard in the approval process of these PSAs, as they are the ones who would be shouldering the price of dirty energy from coal and fossil fuels, both that which is printed on their monthly bills and external costs to health, climate, and the environment,” P4P legal counsel Avril de Torres said in a statement on Tuesday.
“Meralco is rushing the approval of these new PSAs because its existing contracts worth 1,905 MW, most of which comes from coal-fired power plants, are expiring by the end of this Month. But before consumers and all groups pushing for clean energy can rejoice the end of these coal contracts’ reign, we learn that coal-obsessed Meralco is replacing dirty energy, also with dirty energy,” P4P Convenor Gerry Arances said in a statement on Tuesday.
Ian Rivera, National Coordinator of the Philippine Movement for Climate Justice, said Typhoon Tisoy’s “fury” should cause proponents to rethink their PSA applications. “Meralco claims to be of service to Filipino consumers, yet it insists on burning more coal and fossil fuels that send us plunging into deeper and deeper floods every year,” he added.