The Department of Energy (DOE) has ordered and deployed personnel to carry out physical inspection of the delayed liquefied natural gas (LNG) import facilities, as the snagged kick-off of their commercial operations have been triggering spikes in electricity rates being passed on to consumers.

“We asked DOE personnel to physically visit them (LNG facilities) so they can personally validate the reported causes of delay,” Energy Undersecretary Felix William Fuentebella told reporters.

He qualified that the project sponsor-firms - First Gen Corporation and Atlantic Gulf & Pacific Company (AG&P) - have already submitted their revised operation timelines, but the government wants to make sure that these are workable timelines, hence, the agency will be undertaking its own re-validation process.

“We have been following up on these for a long time already because within this administration, there’s already one-year delay,” he stressed.

The Linseed offshore LNG import terminal of AG&P started its operations in June this year, but it was observed that there were instances that it just had ‘intermittent’ availability, so the DOE will also need to check if there are remaining technical snags in its operations.

According to the DOE, the Linseed LNG terminal was already inspected on October 5; while the next physical visit will be slated for the First Gen facility.

This month’s P0.42 per kilowatt hour (kWh) hike in the billed rates of Manila Electric Company (Meralco) had been mainly attributed to deficient gas supply because of the recurring production restriction suffered by the Malampaya field, then that is being compounded by the delayed commercial operations of the LNG import facilities.

Fuentebella acknowledged that the shift of the gas plants to liquid fuels – primarily diesel and condensate – would typically drive up the generation charge in the cost components being passed on by affected distribution utilities.

In the case of Meralco, in particular, it has underwritten contracts with all of the five gas plants in the country; hence, the unavailability or insufficiency of gas fuel will strain its supply portfolio primarily on periods that Malampaya is blighted with gas restriction.

The aggregate capacity of the gas plants hovers at 3,211 megawatts – comprising of the 1,200MW Ilijan facility of the San Miguel group; then the 1,000MW Santa Rita, 500MW San Lorenzo, 414MW San Gabriel and the 97MW Avion gas plants of First Gen.

If the LNG import facilities had already been available, such predicament in power supply sourcing could be eased because LNG is perceived to be more competitive on the cost realm, if compared to the liquid fuels as alternative in running the gas-fed generating facilities.

On top of that, there is also implication on overall supply sufficiency, as one of the gas plants – the 414-megawatt San Gabriel facility – can only run on gas.

“We are hoping that the companies will respond accordingly so further delays can be avoided – not just on the part of the LNG facilities but also on the power plants using gas,” the energy official noted.

Fuentebella added that the stance of the energy department is “we must have sufficient supply – so if we will have issues with our LNG supply, we should also have alternative fuels that we can readily lean on as option.”