Senator Sherwin Gatchalian on Sunday expressed fears that the upcoming power outages next month could affect the government’s rollout of the coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccines.
According to Gatchalian, there is a strong possibility several parts of Luzon would be experiencing rotational brownouts due to electricity shortages.
“Nakita ko na dalawang bagay kung bakit. Unang-una, maraming planta ang bumagsak at maraming planta ang hindi nakabalik agad...Ibig sabihin, numipis ang suplay ng kuryente natin so ‘yun ang isang dahilan (Two things may affect it. first is because many power plants were forced to shut down and some were unable to come back immediately. That means our power supply thinned, so that’s one of the reasons),” said Gatchalian, who chairs the Senate Energy Committee.
“Pangalawa, napakainit so tumataas na naman ang demand ng kuryente natin at nakita ko dito mga ilang linggo na magkakaroon tayo ng red alert (Second, it’s so hot so the demand for electricity will rise again and I expect that in the next few weeks we would be on red alert),” he said in an interview on Radio DZBB.
On Tuesday, April 27, the senator said his panel will conduct a hearing to ask how the Department of Energy (DOE) intends to avert any power crisis in May and or early part of June.
“My only worry is our vaccination program dahil padating na ang mga vaccines natin this coming week at ang mga susunod na bakunang darating. Ito pa ang mga sensitibo (because some of the vaccines are scheduled to arrive this coming week and in the weeks to come. And these have sensitive specifications),” he pointed out.
The National Task Force (NTF) against COVID-19 on Sunday said the arrival of the initial 15,000 doses of Sputnik V from Russia’s Gamaleya Research Institute was moved to April 28, due to logistic concerns.
According to the Department of Health (DOH), the Sputnik V vaccines would be given to local government units (LGUs) that have the capacity to store the drugs as the vaccine requires a storage facility with temperatures not exceeding -18 degree Celsius.
DOE Assistant Secretary Redentor Delola, in a press briefing last Thursday, said they do not foresee rotational brownouts as long as there would be no further shutdown of power plants that could make an impact on the Luzon grid.
Delola said the agency is already looking into shutdowns that are caused by scheduled maintenance and technical glitches.