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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider National devider Is power sector ready for La Niña? House wants to find out

Is power sector ready for La Niña? House wants to find out

Published Jul 16, 2024 04:46 am

At A Glance

  • The House Committee on Legislative Franchises, chaired by Parañaque City 2nd district Rep. Gus Tambunting, met with government agencies involved with the power sector to evaluate their preparedness against the expected impact of La Niña on the industry.

PAGASA sees weak to moderate La Nina setting in October(Unsplash)

By Dexter Barro II

The House Committee on Legislative Franchises, chaired by Parañaque City 2nd district Rep. Gus Tambunting, met with government agencies involved with the power sector to evaluate their preparedness against the expected impact of La Niña on the industry.

“The Committee on Legislative Franchises, with its mandate, must ensure that the privilege of a franchise is given to those who are at all times capable and committed to working for the good of the Filipino people,” Tambunting said on Monday, July 15.

“As always, it is the common good that the committee continues to strive for in this process,” he added.

The lawmaker noted that above-average rainfall can bring serious flooding, landslides, and severe infrastructural and agricultural damage that affects all industries, especially public utilities.

Hence, he said, it is necessary to have agencies be ready and able to proactively address the concerns of its customers.

He added that power outages affect businesses, health, education and overall safety of households.

“The committee continues to monitor the performance of its power franchise grantees, especially in these times,” said Tambunting.

Officials from the National Electrification Administration (NEA), Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), and Department of Energy (DOE) briefed members of the committee on the effects of the La Niña phenomenon on the power sector.

NEA Director Eric Campoto said the agency’s preparations are now being made for La Niña which may emerge in the last quarter of this year and may persist until the first quarter of 2025, based on climate forecasts.

Campoto noted that contingency measures are found in NEA’s technical advisories, which recommends expediting of clearing activities during the dry season, as well as submission of vulnerability and risk assessment plans, mitigation plans and emergency response plans, among others.

The NEA is also distributing pertinent issuances and memoranda to electric cooperatives relative to its preparedness to address disasters and calamities.

ERC Chief Energy Regulation Officer Rochelle Moreno said the power regulator recently issued licenses to new generation facilities to increase the power grid capacity.

Moreno explained that the ERC regularly monitors outages in the operation of these generation facilities.

Meanwhile, DOE Assistant Secretary Mario Marasigan presented several policy recommendations to boost the power sector’s preparedness.

This includes the provision of solar power systems in critical facilities; enhancement of resiliency standards of transmission and distribution facilities; review of the policy on stockpiling and prepositioning of electric cooperatives for disaster response; oil sector to formulate a protocol on supply rationing during disasters; institutionalization of Task Force Kapatid membership and management; and review of Republic Act (RA) No. 11039, or the Electric Cooperatives Emergency and Resiliency Fund Act.

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