Build power plants instead of renting generators, gov’t urged

MANILA, Philippines - Former Bayan Muna Rep. Teddy Casiño suggested yesterday that Congress allow the government to build power plants instead of just renting generators, if this is the solution to the projected electricity shortage in Luzon in the summer months of 2015.

Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla has recommended leasing generators from foreign suppliers that would add up to 600 megawatts to Luzon’s supply at a cost of P6 billion a year for a minimum contract period of two years, or for a total of P12 billion.

“It is ridiculous for government to spend P6 billion a year in taxpayers’ money to rent generators that will make the price of electricity even more expensive than it already is. Secretary Petilla wants to hit us with a double whammy,” Casiño said.

He said Congress should amend the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001 to allow state-owned National Power Corp. (Napocor) to build and operate solar and other renewable energy plants.

“Solar power plants can be put up in as short as six months. Napocor can do this even as it prepared to build more renewable energy plants. The beauty here is that these will be state-owned utilities that can provide our people with cheap, clean power for the next two to three decades,” he said.

“In contrast, Petilla wants us to splurge P6 billion that will surely fatten the wallets of their favored suppliers at the expense of taxpayers and consumers,” he added.

President Aquino has asked Congress for special authority to boost electricity supply in Luzon in mid-2015 by leasing generators from foreign suppliers.

Instead of the solution Aquino and Petilla are suggesting and to avoid the huge cost involved, senators and congressmen are eyeing local sources of power such as malls and big establishments with generators to fill the projected shortage.

Under the plan sugarcoated as interruptible load program (ILP), these establishments would be asked or required to run their generators so that the electricity that they would consume from the Luzon grid would be available to household and other small users.

The objective is to avert rotating brownouts.

In return, the establishments would be reimbursed the cost difference between getting their supply from the grid and running their own generators. The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) would determine the rate of reimbursement.

ERC executive director Francis Juan has estimated that malls and other big establishments like manufacturing plans have up to 3,000 megawatts of available generating capacity, which is more than enough the maximum 800-megawatt shortage that Petilla has projected for the March-June period next year.