Breach of ‘outage allowance’
The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) had served summons to at least 17 power generation companies (GenCos) “to explain the unplanned outages that breached the maximum allowable unplanned outage days per year.”
In a statement to the media, the ERC emphasized that the erring GenCos had been directed “to submit their explanations within seven (7) days” from receipt of the order issued by the industry regulator.
ERC Commissioner Floresinda B. Digal qualified that there have been 35 generating units found to have outage allowance breaches; and these are owned by the 17 GenCos that had been mandated to explain such violations.
The regulatory body noted that based on initial assessment, these generating units of the GenCos had been found not complying with the “cumulative unplanned outages” that has been based on the maximum allowable outage days for year 2021, as anchored on the previously issued rules of the Commission on Reliability Performance Indices and Equivalent Outage Days per year, that must be heeded by the GenCos.
ERC Chairperson Agnes T. Devanadera indicated that “we are strictly monitoring and reviewing the weekly reports being submitted by the GenCos in compliance with our directive pertaining to the reliability performance indices and equivalent outage days per year of generating units.”
The chief power industry regulator conveyed that “based on the examination of our technical group, there are GenCos that have breached the maximum allowable unplanned outage days as of April 2021.”
As this developed, brownouts that should been rotated in various areas of Luzon for 13 hours had been raised early morning of Wednesday, but because of typhoon Dante’s incursion, the grid was temporarily saved from portended worse dilemma of power service interruptions.
As of press time, there had been no circuits dropped by Manila Electric Company, hence, no areas had suffered from brownouts yet as of 3:00pm Wednesday; although red alert condition in the grid was still on until 11:00pm.
In the advisory of system operator National Grid Corporation of the Philippines, several power plants were still on forced outages and that had taken out 1,579 megawatts of capacity from the system; while capacity de-ration in some generating facilities further reduced supply availability by 489MW.
Separately, the Department of Energy (DOE) stated that it “continues to monitor the power situation and will submit factual information for the consumers and the enforcement agencies.”
The department specified that Unit 2 of the Sual plant, with 647MW capacity, has been targeted for synchronization into the grid by 4:00pm of Wednesday –and if that will materialize, it will help alleviate supply deficiency and brownout threats may already be eased.
In a related development, the National Electrification Administration (NEA) announced that it issued a memorandum mandating all electric cooperatives (ECs) “to ensure the continuity of electricity supply to Covid-19 vaccine cold storage facilities and administration sites in their respective coverage areas.”
NEA Administrator Edgardo R. Masongsong stated that he came up with that directive following reports that more than 300 vials of Sinovac vaccines were spoiled in Makilala,
“All ECs are advised to coordinate with the building administrator of vaccine storage facilities and sites in their respective franchise areas to discuss and make a strategic plan of action on joint inspection of the facilities, basic protocols during power interruptions and restoration,” Masongsong has stipulated in his memorandum to the ECs.
He further apprised the power utilities that “the minimum standards and requirements on time of power availability, control, switching, protection for health care facilities and other related critical structures shall follow the guidelines of the Philippine Electrical Code.”
The ECs had also been reminded to source power back-up for the vaccine storage facilities and for these to be used also as emergency response system at the vaccination sites – and these back-up power could come in form of battery storage, generator set, uninterruptible power supply, separate service drop, fuel cell system or unit equipment.
Meanwhile, the DOE noted that it is collaborating with the ERC, Philippine Competition Commission (PCC) and the Department of Justice for “long term strategy of addressing the power supply and demand situation during the summer season.”
The energy department said it keeps on nudging distribution utilities and the system operator to contract needed capacity in the operation of their network; but it missed addressing the point on prospective capacity shortfall on the supply side as well as the ageing state of many power plants that had been rendering them unreliable through the continuing years of their operations.