ERC indecisiveness blamed for power woes

A group of consumer welfare advocates yesterday blasted the indecision of regulators and the courts on applications and cases related to new power plants as demand exceeded supply in the Luzon grid, causing rotational brownouts in some areas.

Parts of Bulacan, Cavite and northern Metro Manila suffered brownouts despite an assurance from the Department of Energy that there might be no need for rotational service interruptions.

In a statement, Laban Konsumer president Vic Dimagiba said petitions were pending in the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) and the courts, particularly for baseload power plants—generators that run round the clock—that would add capacity to the system.

“They cannot keep dragging their feet and pussyfooting, and allow the system to collapse due to indecisiveness,” Dimagiba said.

He said the ERC, in particular, had to step up and decide whether to reject or approve the power plants that would provide the necessary power supply in these times of red alert.

“Generators are wary about investing in new power plants because of too much red tape and regulatory uncertainties,” he said.

Dimagiba said regulators and the courts, with their indecisiveness, were bringing the country back to the power crisis years of the 1990s.

Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) said manual load dropping (MLD) started at 1:14 p.m., with brownouts experienced in portions of Malolos, Plaridel, Bustos, Pulilan and Guiguinto in Bulacan; and Tagaytay, Alfonso, Indang, Maragondon, Mendez-Nuñez, General Emilio Aguinaldo, Amadeo, Imus and Bacoor in Cavite.

In Metro Manila, affected areas included Malabon, Navotas, Caloocan City, Valenzuela as well as Batasan, Fairview, Bago Bantay and Novaliches in Quezon City.

National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) on Wednesday said it might implement manual load dropping—or rotational supply interruption—that would affect the service areas of Meralco as well as distributors that service Abra, Isabela, parts of Bataan, San Fernando in Pampanga, Tarlac City, parts of Quezon province, Camarines Sur and Albay.

The red alert notice—which means the projected demand exceeds available power generating capacity by more than 200 megawatts—was issued for the 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. as well as 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. time intervals.

A yellow alert—projected demand leaves reserve generation capacity at less than 647 MW—was issued for the intervals 9 a.m. to 10 a.m.; 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.; 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.

Power plants that represent 827 MW in capacity were on planned outage on April 10.

“(We do) not expect any power interruption because there are 174.6 MW available under the Interruptible Load Program (ILP) within the Meralco franchise area,” the DOE said in a statement.

Citing data from NGCP and power plant operators, the DOE said four facilities—which represent a total of 1,352 MW of capacity—were under forced or unscheduled outage due to technical problems.