Petilla waits for Congress nod for Noy’s emergency powers

ISTANBUL – Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho Petilla can heave a sigh of relief now that President Aquino has declared a state of emergency in the power sector, but he can’t pop the champagne bottles just yet.

“It still has to be approved by Congress,” Petilla said in a text message over the weekend.

Petilla expressed hope that Congress will back the declaration as he knows that deliberations can take time.

Valenzuela Rep. Sherwin Gatchalian urged his colleagues in Congress yesterday to act swiftly on President Aquino’s request for emergency powers.

“If Congress doesn’t approve the request for emergency powers by October, we will have (blackouts) in Luzon next year. We will see massive layoffs, especially contractual workers. And unemployment will surely go up,” Gatchalian warned.

“Right now, Congress and Malacañang must move as one team and decide how to stave off this serious problem in our energy supply, which is expected to be a full-blown crisis during the dry season,” he added.

While critics have wondered why the proposal seemed sudden, Petilla said he has been quietly crunching the numbers since late last year.

Petilla earlier told The STAR that it was the delay in the schedule of operations of a 200-megawatt (MW) natural gas power plant that prompted him to finally propose to President Aquino to invoke Section 71 of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) of 2001, the landmark power reform law.

Based on timetables released by the Department of Energy in February last year, the power plant was supposed to be online in December 2014 and the turbines were supposed to arrive in May 2014.

However, in June no turbines arrived. This was one of the reasons that prompted Petilla to propose the invocation of Section 71. He then showed Malacañang the numbers and presented his case for the declaration of Section 71. 

Invoking Section 71 of the EPIRA would allow the government, through the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM), the government corporation handling state-owned power assets, to tap additional capacity in time for summer next year. 

Under Petilla’s plan, PSALM would rent bunker-fueled power facilities to fill up the projected shortfall of 300 to 500 MW.

Following uncertainty in the commencement of operations of the 200-MW plant, Petilla’s number crunching showed that the Philippines will need 9,011 MW of power next year, higher than this year’s demand of 8,717 MW on the back of the projected growth in the economy.

Department of Energy (DOE) officials assured critics that the invocation of Section 71 of EPIRA would simply be used to tap additional power capacity and not be used by the government to take over power plants.

“It’s really just to allow PSALM to contract additional capacity,” said May Militante, DOE public information officer, in an interview on the sidelines of the department’s third leg of its international roadshow here for the Philippine Energy Contracting Round 5. – With Jess Diaz, Christina Mendez