Daily 3-hour brownouts in Luzon possible if crisis not addressed —solon

Rotating brownouts lasting three hours a day may occur several days a week in Luzon next summer if Congress does not grant President Benigno Aquino III’s request for emergency powers to deal with a looming energy crisis, a lawmaker said Sunday. 

House Energy Committee chair and Oriental Mindoro Rep. Reynaldo Umali said Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho Petilla told House leaders in a briefing last week that brownouts are likely to happen from March to June 2015 if Congress fails to pass a joint resolution authorizing Aquino to contract additional generating capacity for the Luzon grid.

“[Sec. Petilla] has presented the scenario wherein the country will experience a mild El Niño, so there will be about more or less 15 weeks of yellow and red alert. There may be eight weeks of yellow alert and seven weeks ng red alert. The problem is there will be three-hour brownouts for about five days a week,” he said in an interview on dzBB radio.

The National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) raises the “yellow alert” when the total reserve is less than the capacity of the largest plant online. For the Luzon grid, this is 647 megawatts (MW). A red alert, meanwhile, is raised when the contingency reserve is zero or a generation deficiency exists.

The brownouts may last for seven to eight hours seven days a week should the El Niño worsen, Umali said.

Aquino has asked Congress to grant him emergency powers before he went abroad for official trips in Europe and the United States. Among the solutions proposed by the Department of Energy to the looming energy crisis include strengthening the Interruptible Load Program (ILP), and leasing or purchasing generator sets.  

The President cited the Section 71—the Electric Power Crisis Provision—of Republic Act 9136 or the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) as the basis for the Congress to grant him authorization.

Section 71 states, "Upon determination by the President of the Philippines of an imminent shortage of the supply of electricity, Congress may authorize, through a joint resolution, the establishment of additional generating capacity."

According to the DOE’s estimates, a power shortfall between 300-1,200 MW may affect the Luzon grid by March 2015. The 1,200 energy deficit may occur if the El Niño turns out to be severe, Umali said.

The House and Senate are set to conduct their respective inquiries to determine the country’s actual or projected energy deficit for next year.

Umali, who eyes the House approval of the joint resolution sought by the President before October ends, maintained Congress will not give Aquino blanket authority to solve the energy crisis.

“What we can also assure the public is that we will not give blanket authority [to the President] like how it's done in the past… Instead we will do our job by making sure that we will not burden the people to the extent it’s possible because of the crisis that we are confronting in the summer months of 2015,” he said. — Xianne Arcangel/BM, GMA News