Napocor violates water protocol – MWSS

With Angat dam nearing its critical level, the state-run Metropolitan Waterworks Sewerage System (MWSS) has warned of a “double whammy” crisis in Metro Manila when the dam’s power component is privatized in April.

MWSS Administrator Diosdado Jose Allado said during a press conference that the privatization of the power component of Angat dam would present problems because of the “inherent conflict” between power and domestic use of the dam’s waters.

“As early as November last year, the Pagasa [Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration] already warned the three users [National Power Corporation, MWSS and National Irrigation Administration] of Angat dam that there would be El Niño. Thus, we were already asked to make necessary preparations and mitigation measures,” Allado said.

“But Napocor still continued releasing enormous volume of water for hydroelectric plants notwithstanding the warning of Pagasa, and even violated the water protocol,” he added.

Allado explained that under the protocol, water should not be released when the level of Angat hits the lower rule curve, which is about 207 meters. Water for domestic consumption and irrigation, however, could still be released.

As of Monday, the water level at Angat stood at 186 meters, or six meters shy of the critical level of 180 meters, which the administrator blamed on the “indiscriminate” water release made by Napocor to run hydroelectric power plants.

Power supply still unstable

Napocor’s move might have been prompted by the erratic electricity supply in the country’s three main islands continues because of insufficient power generation.

The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) on Monday said that Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao are projected to suffer from a power shortage of 332 megawatts, 158 megawatts and 632 megawatts, respectively.

“This increase in [Luzon’s] power deficiency from last Saturday afternoon’s 120 megawatts can be attributed to the significant rise in power demand from 6,133 megawatts to today’s forecast demand of 7,042 megawatts,” the NGCP said in a statement.

Also contributing to the supply shortage was the unavailability of several power plants in the region as of Monday.

Plants such as San Miguel Corp.’s Limay unit 2 with a capacity of 90 megawatts as well as Korea Electric Power Corp.’s Malaya units 1 (300 megawatts) and 2 (350 megawatts), which were online on Saturday afternoon, were all on emergency shutdown.

First Gen Corp.’s Santa Rita Units 10 and 30, which could generate a total of 500 megawatts, were also down for scheduled maintenance.

The Manila Electric Co., which distributes electricity to Luzon’s major urban and industrial centers, initially projected power interruptions between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. and 8 p.m. on Monday because of insufficient generation power capacity.

But Kepco’s Ilijan plant was able to restart operations before 10 a.m. Monday, contributing around 900 megawatts to the grid.

The natural gas plant was shut down earlier after maintenance works and technical troubles at the Malampaya gas field of Shell Philippines Exploration BV affected the delivery of fuel supply to the facility.

With the Ilijan plant switched on, available power generating capacity more than made up for the projected power deficiency in Luzon, at least for Monday.

Power supply in the region remained unreliable after power plants continued to bog down one after the other for various technical reasons since the start of the year.

This shortfall, coupled with scheduled maintenance of other power facilities and the debilitating effects of the El Niño weather phenomenon on hydroelectric plants, has resulted in several island-wide rotating brownouts.

The Visayas and Mindanao regions are also facing their own power supply problems.

National Grid said that power interruptions were likely to hit the Visayas on Monday with a deficiency of 158 megawatts, as against peak demand of 1,211 megawatts, because of technical troubles in two power plants on the same day.

Cebu Energy Development Corp.’s coal plant went offline because of a boiler problem while Energy Development Corp.’s Leyte geothermal power plant unit 2 is on emergency shutdown because of an unspecified technical problem.

National Grid said that the Mindanao grid would continue to experience generation deficiency of approximately 632 megawatts, a significant portion of its projected 1,437-megawatt peak demand.

The limited power supply on the island is still caused by the inadequate available capacities from the grid’s main power sources—the state-owned National Power Corp.’s hydro power plants—which normally generate half of the region’s electricity supply.

Almost all of these plants have water reservoirs that are drying up from the El Niño.

Generation sets
Malacañang said that power generation sets that will help plug the power shortage in Mindanao could arrive in mid-April.

Cabinet members and representatives from the private sector held a high-level meeting also on Monday in Malacañang to discuss the leasing of generation sets by private power distributors in Mindanao.

Executive Secretary Leandro Mendoza said that the initial generation sets will arrive in two to four weeks and this could provide a total of 35 megawatts, part of the initial 200 megawatts that would be supplied to Mindanao.

Mendoza added that stakeholders agreed that the private sector would provide generation sets through lease, which will be supported by financing windows from Land Bank of the Philippines and the Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP).

Mindanao Electric Power Alliance (MEPA) consultant Guido Delgado said that the private power distributors are talking about financing structures to pay for renting of the generation sets.

Guido said that the generation sets would be deployed in South Cotabato, General Santos City and Zamboanga City. He added that each 20-megawatt generation set would require $200 million in financing.

The generation sets will be leased from Singapore, the United States and Australia.

Finance Secretary Margarito Teves said that they would evaluate the financing requirements of the private sector as quickly as possible so that the generation sets could arrive on time.

But Teves could not say how much loans will be provided by the LandBank and DBP. President Gloria
Arroyo earlier said that around $100 million, or P5 billion would be needed to finance the leasing of the generation sets.

“We have to check with the DBP and LandBank. The $100 million is possible but I can’t say that’s accurate,” he said.

During the meeting, the stakeholders recognized that the power crisis in Mindanao would not end in June when the rains start and that there may be a need for the government and the private sector to work until December to solve the problem. –KATRINA MENNEN A. VALDEZ Reporter with reports from Euan Paulo C. Añonuevo and Angelo S. Samonte, Manila Times