House cool to emergency powers for Noy

MANILA, Philippines - President Aquino’s request for emergency powers to deal with a projected electricity shortage in Luzon in mid-2015 faces rough sailing in the House of Representatives, Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II said yesterday.

“We will subject this proposal to a fine-tooth-comb scrutiny. We have to make sure that there is really credible basis for the grant of the special authority that the President is seeking,” he told reporters.

He said the administration is in a no-win situation in addressing the projected shortfall in power supply.

“If we are making people pay for additional electricity and the alleged shortage does not happen, we in Congress and the President will be blamed. If it happens, just the same, the President will be blamed,” he said.

Gonzales pointed out that instead of making people pay billions for additional power, the Department of Energy (DOE) should explore other options to deal with the projected shortage.

He said he and Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. have been informed that requiring malls and other big business establishments to use their generators in exchange for some incentives would free up about 1,000 megawatts (MW) that would be available to household users during next year’s summer months.

“Aside from this, we were told that there is an additional 125 MW that Petron Corp. can provide, plus 100 MW more from a natural gas plant that is scheduled to start operating before yearend. We can also resort to energy conservation measures,” he said.

“Clearly, there are alternatives other than making consumers pay billions,” he said.

However, he lamented that Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla appears fixated on contracting additional power from foreign suppliers.

He said per DOE’s estimate, this option would cost consumers P6 billion for 300 megawatts of contracted electricity.

“That’s a huge amount for our people to pay. Contracting power for one year or two years when we need additional electricity only for three months should be our last option,” he said.

House

On Sept. 11, at the launch of a power plant project in Pagbilao, Quezon, Aquino said he was seeking special authority from Congress “to contract an additional generating capacity to address the 300-megawatt projected deficit, and… to have sufficient regulating reserves equivalent to four percent of peak demand, for another 300 megawatts.”

If all the 600 MW were contracted, the cost involved on the part of consumers would be P12 billion over two years, the envisioned minimum contract period.

In the same Pagbilao event, Petilla told reporters that his estimate of the cost involved was $20 million or about P8.8 billion per 100 MW.

Roadmap

Cagayan de Oro City Rep. Rufus Rodriguez, a member of the Joint Congressional Power Commission, said Petilla should present to Congress “a roadmap consisting of concrete viable actions that the President can do if he is given emergency powers.”