BACOLOD City – The power supply agreement (PSA) between Central Negros Electric Cooperative (Ceneco) and Energy Development Corporation (EDC) will only partly solve the power crisis.
This was according to Frank Carbon, chief executive officer of the Metro Bacolod Chamber of Commerce and Industry (MBCCI).
“The PSA will only partly solve the power crisis of the country unless they will take actions on some possibilities such as requiring the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) to contract, and report to the public, ample ancillary reserves on a per island basis to reduce, if not eliminate, yellow and red alerts,” said Carbon.
These power alerts consequently result to forced power outages through rotating brownouts to avoid grid collapse.
“If there is no ample reserves, the distribution utilities (DUs) or electric cooperatives (ECs) may be forced to buy power from Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) at a high price which will be passed on by the DUs to consumers, and that is what is happening now,” Carbon pointed out.
Another possibility, he said, is to require DUs to have a ready Interruptible Load Program (ILP) to reduce power demand from the grid when yellow alert is imminent.
But, ILP should only be a “stop-gap” measure not a “business as usual” policy, Carbon explained.
Another one is requiring DUs to contract reserve power from power reliability plant/s to avoid buying power from spot market whose price is very volatile and unpredictable.
Thus, requiring also the DUs to report regularly, maybe monthly, to the Department of Energy (DOE), Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), and to the public/consumers the percentage, volume, and price of power they are buying from spot market and the average rate they are charging to consumers.
And, the last possibility, he said, is to lift the moratorium on the construction of coal-fired power plants.
Carbon explained the 32 power plants (as per report of DOE) that went on forced outages should be brought back and continue to supply power, and Negros Island should have an additional embedded or on-island base-load power plant.
The NGCP should also complete the Negros Island Transmission loop, while ERC should review and approve the capital expenditure application of Ceneco to upgrade/update its distribution facilities, he added.
As to the expected power rate reduction by next month following PSA’s approval, Carbon said this is possible if Ceneco will purchase little from WESM.
“But, if they continue buying at WESM about 74 percent of power supply needed by the EC instead of reducing it to 20 or 30 percent ,the electricity rates will still be high,” Carbon said.
The ERC has approved the implementation of PSA between Ceneco and EDC in a bid to arrest the increasing electricity rates affecting the province of Negros Occidental.
Arnel Lapore, Ceneco’s acting general manager, said he received the Notice of Resolution dated May 29, 2024 from the ERC, giving interim relief for EDC to supply power to Ceneco at the rate of P5.5657 per kilowatt hour (kWh).
Lapore said the ERC’s approval is an advantage for the consumers under the franchise areas of Ceneco as it will bring down the electricity generation rate to about P1.50/kWh./PN
