More dark days ahead

At least a week before “Glenda” even developed into a full-blown typhoon and entered the Philippines, we had been warned about imminent new power supply interruptions in the Luzon grid. The Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), the country’s biggest power distributor, issued an alert last week about the looming rotating power supply interruptions that will affect five million customers in its franchise area.

Actually, “Glenda” did not bring much rain but she packed winds of 140 kilometers per hour. So it was not surprising there were so many electric poles and trees that fell over transmission lines and cut power supply. As of this writing, many areas still have no electricity while others are lucky to have their power supply back, though on rotating basis. 

But as early as last Saturday, parts of Luzon already experienced rotating power interruptions lasting up to three hours. The supply deficiency was due largely to the unavailability of the 1,200-megawatt (MW) Ilijan natural gas power plant in Batangas, owned and operated by Kepco Philippines Inc.

The Ilijan Plant is one of the three natural gas plants supplying 30 to 40 percent of Luzon’s energy requirements. With the shutdown of Ilijan, Meralco implemented the so-called manual load dropping (MLD) to ration power supply.

The Luzon grid suffered from two- to three-hour rotating outages after several power plants were being prepared to go on scheduled maintenance shutdown between now and November. Four power plants are expected to go on scheduled maintenance shutdown.

Unit 2 of Team Energy’s Pagbilao Plant in Quezon will go on scheduled shutdown starting this Saturday (July 19) until August 3. So for 16 days it will be out of commission with 375-MW of electricity off line.

Unit 2 of Sual coal-fired power plant in Pangasinan will also go on maintenance shutdown from August 3 to September 1. It will be out of commission for 29 days with much bigger 647-MW of electricity supply cut.

The Lopez Group’s Sta. Rita and San Lorenzo plants will  go on scheduled shutdowns as follows: Sta. Rita Module 20, September 6 to 10 affecting 250-MW; San Lorenzo Module 50, October 25 to 29 affecting 250-MW; Sta. Rita Module 30, November 1 to November 5, affecting 250-MW; and San Lorenzo Module 60, from November 8 to 12, affecting 250-MW.

We did not hear anything from top officials of the  Department of Energy (DOE) even as there is already a precarious power supply situation. At this time of the year while we are having our rainy season, such thin power supply outlook does not look good.

Neither have we heard anything from the alphabet soup of government regulatory agencies supervising the electricity industry, from the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM). While these regulatory agencies do not have anything to do with it, however, any disturbances that reduce the power supply consequently result in higher price of this basic utility service.

Remember, Meralco came under fire for the alleged overpricing of electricity as a result of unscheduled shutdowns of major power plants in the Luzon grid. A case was filed against the purported artificial power supply shortage as a means to jack up electricity rates by as much as P9.10 per kilowatthour (kwh) in December last year. The case remains pending at the Supreme Court (SC) which issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) to stop Meralco from collecting the questioned rate hike.

But we have gotten tips from very reliable sources that the SC will soon hand down its decision to likely remand the case back to the ERC and order the ERC to investigate or study it further. This is the most possible scenario since the High Court obviously does not have the technical capacity and expertise to study the merits of the case as much as the ERC does.

The SC first issued a 60-day TRO on December 23, 2013 and extended it for another 60 days on February 23, 2014 and again on April 23, 2014 for an indefinite period.

The TRO covered Meralco’s December 2013 generation charge hike of P3.44 to P9.10 per kwh from only P5.67 per kwh in November. The generation charge, as reflected in our monthly Meralco bill, accounts for roughly 65 percent of our total electricity billing. It is the cost of power purchased by Meralco from power generators. 

The 15-man SC, headed by Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, is currently under fire from both Malacañang and Congress over two major decisions against the two coequal branches of government. On November 19 last year, the SC ruled as unconstitutional the so-called pork-barrel of lawmakers called the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF). Last July 1, the SC ruled also as unconstitutional certain executive actions that implemented the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP).

Both the Palace and the 16th Congress are obviously smarting over these back-to-back losses. Taking up the cudgels for the embattled SC, judges and court employees in trial courts in the country will reportedly wear black on Monday in protest of the public tirades by President Benigno “Noy” Aquino III against the SC.

Yesterday, we got reports the members of the judiciary were closing ranks after President Aquino made veiled threats to impeach SC justices over their unanimous ruling that declared illegal how certain funds from DAP were used.

The black dress protest to support the SC followed moves by militant groups and Aquino critics in launching their “peach” and “purple” campaigns. This was their countermove to President Aquino’s public plea for people to wear “yellow ribbon” to show support to his DAP stand.

Members of the judiciary have declared their own war in the “darkest” possible way. In the meantime, we are literally living in darkness after “Glenda” unleashed its fury that sent us back to more dark days ahead.

The recurring blackouts are a grim reminder of the last power supply crisis we had in the 1990s during the last two years in office of the late mother of P-Noy, former President Corazon Aquino.

DOE Secretary Jericho Petilla admitted yesterday it will take two weeks to fully restore the power supply to normal all over the country hit by “Glenda.” Unfortunately for Petilla, his stewardship of the energy sector coincides also with the last two years in office of P-Noy.