For once, I couldn’t agree more with Sen. Manny Pacquiao when he jabbed at Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi’s alleged incompetence, accusing the latter of undermining his duties as a Cabinet member in favor of a political agenda.
Pacquiao castigated Cusi for convening the national assembly of the ruling Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan on May 31, despite Pacquiao’s objection in the wake of rotating brownouts in Metro Manila, and more importantly the still unchecked Covid-19 pandemic, which has overwhelmed global health response. Pacquiao is PDP-Laban’s party president. But Cusi, who had the backing of President Duterte—as confirmed by Palace Spokesman Harry Roque—proceeded with the assembly. In the said meeting, PDP-Laban endorsed the presidential candidacy of presidential daughter and incumbent Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio, with her father as running mate.
In a privilege speech on June 2, the professional boxer and senator lamented that the country is facing serious problems of a raging pandemic and dwindling power supply.
“…[H]ave we done enough preparations for a surge in power supply demand this summer?” Pacquiao asked. “I will say it straight: [Cusi] is incompetent for that position.”
Luzon was placed under red alert for three straight days, from May 31 to June 2, when demand for electricity was anticipated to exceed available power supply. The Luzon grid’s lost capacity amounted to 1,372 megawatts because of the paralysis of unit 2 of the Pagbilao coal-fired plant; units 1 and 2 of the GNPower Mariveles Energy Center’s coal-fired plant, and unit 2 of the Calaca coal-fired plant. As three units of the San Roque power plant went offline, the grid also lost some 435 MW. Diminished yield from power plants totaled 2,126 MW, inclusive of 484 MW from KEPCO Ilijan Corp.’s gas-fired plant. Also, 1,642 MW from other coal, oil-based and renewables plants were deemed “de-rated.”
The outages moved the Energy Regulatory Commission to order the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines to explain the cause of the delay in 33 power transmission projects for which the agency had already been given the green light. ERC Chair Agnes Devanadera took to task the NGCP—the private operator of the country’s transmission network—and asked it to justify in detail the changes in the timeline and the events that led to the postponement of the projects’ completion. “The completion of the NGCP transmission projects is a crucial element in ensuring the stability of electricity in the entire country,” Devanadera pointed out.
Cusi had also slammed NGCP for being “consistently noncompliant” with the requirement to secure “firm” contracts for ancillary services, which commit the supplier to deliver, as opposed to “nonfirm” contracts wherein power companies have a leeway to not deliver.
Last April, however, NGCP told the joint congressional energy committee that ancillary services required the availability of excess capacity and that contracts could not be secured if there were no such surplus.
Legislators then turned the tables on the DOE, which they said is solely responsible for the brownouts because it botched to design ways that would have stabilized the country’s power supply. Senators Franklin Drilon, Sherwin Gatchalian, Aquilino Pimentel III, and Francis Pangilinan were dismayed when it appeared that the DOE was trying to evade any accountability.
“It’s disappointing. Blame everyone except yourself. Where is accountability?” Drilon said in a statement. The move is an attempt to shift away the blame from the government, which, obviously, failed to prepare for these power outages over the last five years. The DOE is only using power plants as scapegoats for what happened. It’s a cover-up,” Drilon said.
He echoed the views aired by Pacquiao over the supposed “incompetence” of officials led by Cusi, who Pacquaio accused of prioritizing political affairs over his duties as a member of the Cabinet.
Senate Committee of Energy Chair Gatchalian cited that, while the threat to sue the generation companies might be an important step to compel power firms to improve their operations, such a move was merely reactive on the DOE’s part. “It will not solve the current brownouts that we are experiencing. DOE should have anticipated the worst-case scenario earlier on and put in place contingency measures.”
The power situation wouldn’t be the mess it is now, as this corner has repeatedly written, if only the government lent a helping hand in allowing Australian-based Energy World’s Liquefied Natural Gas a “cut-in” connection to an existing 230kV transmission line within its project site. The Pagbilao LNG plant is presently 95 percent complete. The only thing keeping the company from operating is an infrastructure that would have allowed it to export power. Had it been given all the necessary assistance as a courtesy to a foreign investor, which has poured in millions in investments in the project, EWC’s LNG plant could have started exporting power years ago. The NGCP, mandated to encourage power producers to export power on a first-come-first-served basis, had rejected EWC’s request to hook its plant—notwithstanding that it was technically feasible to do so—to the existing power plant because of the opposition of Team Energy (Pagbilao coal-fired plant). EWC is now in the final construction stages of its own 12-14km transmission line.
Nonetheless, the Australian firm remains undeterred. It is raising about AU$18 million to fund the development of EWC’s projects in Australia and Southeast Asia, a substantial portion of which has been allotted for the completion of the Pagbilao LNG plant’s own transmission facilities, work on which has been delayed due to the pandemic.
It is indeed puzzling where our energy leaders’ priorities lie. While they are busy passing the buck or playing a musical-chair-blame-game, parts of the country could be left in the dark because the powers-that-be in this administration remain blind to the viable solution that the LNG project presents. Truly short-sighted and unfortunate!
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