Disjointed

We are crawling inexorably towards a power crisis. There is no debate about that. In a few months, demand will surpass supply. We will sit in darkness.

Insufficient power will cap out economic growth. No ifs and buts about that. Without electricity, there will be no new economic capacity.

While the problem is clear, the solutions to it seem to escape the minds of those who must apply them. That is where the tragedy lies.

Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla thinks giving President Aquino emergency powers will solve the problem. That does not mean, however, that emergency powers will generate electricity. It only means the President may lease diesel-powered generators without the nicety of a public bidding.

Leasing costly diesel generators will not solve the problem; merely postpone it. It will surely push up the price consumers need to pay. In turn, this will kick up the already alarming inflation rate threatening our people’s wellbeing.

The price for incompetence mounts by the day —along with the supply of idiotic ideas for addressing the looming shortage.

For instance, a certain David Tan (not the rice guy) suggests that the distribution utilities (such as Meralco and other electric cooperatives) be tasked with issuing supply shortage alerts to consumers. That suggestion conveniently overlooks the fact that power distributors do not control power supply. The generating companies do.

This stray suggestion simply adds to the haze. It is an insidious attempt to blame the looming shortage on the distribution utilities. The blame should properly lie with government’s failure to ensure there is ample supply available as well as the power generators whose duty it is to provide reliable capacity.

Meralco is so easily vilified because it is the component of the complex power industry dealing directly with the consumers. Consumers do not go directly to the power generators to pay generation charges. They do not go to National Grid Corporation to pay transmission costs. It is Meralco that collects their charges for them — and the bulk of the electricity bill is composed of generation and transmission charges.

Our power sector is set up such that any power generator can supply any distribution utility. Conversely, any distribution utility can purchase power from any generator on the usual considerations of price and reliability. Definitely, the distribution utilities are the least capable of influencing, much less monopolizing, the entire power sector.

David Tan should be the first one to know this. He really belongs to power generator sector even as he has managed to insinuate himself into the DOE’s task force as the representative of consumers, using a highly questionable NGO to achieve that.

Tan owned and operated Power One Corporation that, a few years ago, managed to win a supply contract with the Oriental Mindoro Electric Cooperative (ORMECO). Power One, however, failed to live up to its part the contract since it could not complete its generation facility within the agreed deadlines. This outraged the people of Oriental Mindoro and led to charges filed against Tan.

In a word, he personifies what has gone wrong in our power sector: failed power generators assigning the blame to others.

Gridlock

What really was the decision reached on the controversial circulars issued by the DOTC and the LTFRB and rejected by the MMDA along with the metro mayors? The circulars were blamed for the mammoth traffic gridlock that descended on the metropolitan area the past few weeks.

The warring parties were called to a conference at the Palace. Secretary to the Cabinet Rene Almendras, the other person responsible for the looming power crisis, chaired that meeting. However, no clear communiqué was issued after the conference. Instead, all sides in this controversy issued confusing statements. 

Absent a clear communiqué and definite orders, it seems the Palace copped out on its role to finally clear the air and resolve the disagreements.

With the executive branch showing indecisiveness, the legislative branch stepped into the issue. During the House Committee on Metro Manila Development, Rep. Lito Atienza roundly criticized LTFRB chair Winston Ginez for ineptitude and asked him to resign his post. Atienza was former Manila mayor.

The call for Ginez to resign is echoed by other Metro mayors as well as a horde of harassed commuters venting their exasperation on social media. The LTFRB is now almost universally condemned for being afflicted with the same incompetence that is the hallmark of the DOTC under the leadership (or lack thereof) of Sec. Emilio Abaya.

The Senate is setting its own public hearing on the conflict between the LTFRB and the Metro mayors. We might expect an irate Miriam Santiago, one of the millions victimized by the humungous traffic gridlocks, to make an appearance. She could be much blunter than Lito Atienza.  

Meanwhile, the LTFRB is insisting on its protracted schedule for “rationalization” of bus and truck routes along Metro Manila’s streets. The mayors, for their part, are vigilantly enforcing their respective ordinances banning trucks without franchises on city streets. The harassed truck drivers are about as confused as everybody else.

Ginez, said to be a Mar Roxas protégé like Abaya, shows no remorse for the provocative circulars and even less inclination to quit his post. President Aquino shows little appreciation for the controversy that is salient in the minds of urban commuters.

Consequently, there continues to be a gridlock in policy as exasperating as the gridlock in city streets. There seems to be little empathy at the top for the agonies we endure each working day.