The Department of Energy (DOE) should ready its contingency plans to ensure there would be enough supply of electricity as warmer weather conditions continue to heighten due to the impact of the El Niño phenomenon.

“El Niño is going to be a big concern for our country not just in terms of food security but also energy security,” Gatchalian said in a recent press forum.

“A big chunk of our hydro areas will be experiencing drought, and their output will be curtailed which will have an impact on some parts of the country, so we need to have a contingency plan for that especially during the hot months,” he stressed.

According to the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa), the Philippines is expected to experience the peak of the El Niño phenomenon in the summer months.

In order to cushion the impact of drier weather conditions, the senator said the DOE must ensure that all the necessary repairs and preventive maintenance will be undertaken before the peak of the summer months to prevent unforeseen outages.

Gatchalian, vice chairman of the Senate Committee on Energy, noted that in 2022, about nine percent of the country’s power capacity was generated from hydroelectric power plants.

Therefore, it is imperative that the DOE takes the lead in ensuring that no unscheduled power outage will take place in the next few months. 

Gatchalian noted that power plants are particularly vulnerable to breakdowns during summer months amid high demand.

“All the preventive maintenance should be done now so that when the summer months come, the plants will be running at full capacity and the DOE needs to monitor this very carefully,” the lawmaker said.