Gov’t may tap traders’ excess electricity

The Federation of Philippine Industries (FPI) has urged the Department of Energy to tap the emergency powers provided under the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Epira) so that the government may be able to contract additional generating capacities from its members in the manufacturing sector.

The move will help avert a power supply shortage, which is expected to reach about 400 megawatts (MW) by 2015.

In a statement, FPI chair Jesus Lim Arranza said their members, whose core business is manufacturing, have no intention of selling their excess capacities to the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) as they lack the expertise and experience in electricity trading.

According to Arranza, the FPI members are more than willing to support the efforts of the DOE to address a looming power supply crunch in 2015. They are, however, asking the government for a simpler arrangement to operationalize proposals to tap their backup generators.

Should the DOE invoke Section 71 of Epira, which will allow the government to engage in the power generation and selling business following the declaration of an “imminent power shortage” and the granting of emergency powers, the government may also take on the responsibility of managing and dispatching the contracted capacities from FPI members, and of collecting the payments under a mutually acceptable compensation scheme, Arranza said.

Once implemented, “this could very well prepare the country in mitigating the imminent power problem,” Arranza said.

Earlier this week, the European Chamber of Commerce of the Philippines (ECCP) urged government leaders and company executives to invest in energy efficiency initiatives and programs to help avert an impending power shortage.

Henry Schumacher, ECCP vice president for external affairs, stressed that implementing energy conservation alone would easily “save 20 to 30 percent of energy consumption.”