About 20 power plants will go on scheduled maintenance shutdown during the dry months, affecting energy supply, the Energy Department said Monday.
Energy Undersecretary Felix William Fuentebella, however, ruled out outages during the dry months when supply is expected to be tight.
Demand for electricity historically goes up during the dry months due to the hot temperatures and the curtailed output of hydro-electric plants in favor of irrigation and public consumption.
“As far as our numbers are concerned, we are confident that we will not experience any interruption, so we are confident with that,” Fuentebella said.
He did not identify the power plants that would go on maintenance shutdown but said unit 1 of Pagbilao coal plant was included in the list.
He said Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi had given strict instructions to ensure adequate power supply such as making sure the newly-completed Limay power plant of San Miguel Corp. went online.
“We are looking into the scheduling of the maintenance activities of the power plants… What we have in the list is 20… they are not simultaneous,” he said.
Fuentebella added the Malaya thermal power plant was also on standby as a must-run unit when supply goes thin.
“It’s a must-run unit, so aside from the plants that we are looking into, the Malaya is ready to run. And also, we have a massive campaign for conservation, because the demand-side is forgotten sometimes that we play a very important role, the consumers,” the official said.
He assured the public of sufficient reserves across the three power grids.
Fuentebella said the government would continue to push for more power supply coming from new technologies, such as liquefied natural gas, especially as Malampaya gas field is set to run out within the next decade.
“By 2019, that is the target of Secertary Cusi, PNOC (Philippine National Oil Co.) should build that terminal, the LNG terminal,” Fuentebella said.
Manila Electric Co., the biggest retailer of electricity, earlier said it was negotiating with First Gen Corp. to buy 200 megawatts from the latter’s 414-megawatt San Gabriel natural gas plant in Batangas to ensure adequate power supply during the dry months.
“It’s still in negotiations… We have ongoing negotiations,” Meralco senior vice president and head of customer retail services, corporate marketing and communications Al Panlilio said
The 414 megawatt combined-cycle natural gas-fired San Gabriel power plant in Santa Rita, Batangas is a flexible plant designed to provide baseload, mid-merit and peaking power, depending on the grid’s demand.
The San Gabriel Flex-Plant offers daily start/stop and fast-start capability, as well as quick ramp up and ramp down of the power plant across a wide operating window”•from low plant turndown to high output.
Aside from San Gabriel, Meralco has signed interim power supply agreements with Bauang 1590 Energy for 150 MW, Toledo Power Corp. for 27 MW and Panay Power Corp. for 45 MW.
Panlilio said the contracts cover until July 25, 2017.