DOE prepares La Niña contingencies to avoid possible power outages

By Alena Mae S. Flores – June 20, 2024, 7:30 pm
from manilastandard.net

Energy Secretary Raphael Lotilla

The Department of Energy (DOE) said it is preparing contingences to minimize the impact of the La Nina weather phenomenon to the power industry and avoid possible outages.

“We are already preparing.  We have prepared measures. Because if the rains are too heavy, as we have experienced in Typhoon Aghon, the power lines, especially in the areas which were hit by heavy rains, were interrupted, the ones in Quezon. So we have to prepare for contingencies,” Energy Secretary Raphael Lotilla said.

Lotilla said the resumption of the reserve market would help provide additional supply.

“We will see the reserve market already online, operating because the reserve market will allow the diesel and bunker fuel power plants to run and get the compensation that they need in order to run. So that will help us get to any of possible interruptions due to La Nina,” the energy chief said.

Lotilla said the DOE was preparing “for the worst” under La Nina, with the least power interruptions.

“We’ve got to make sure that the hopefully the La Nina will be there after already the dams have been replenished so that the hydros can be fully operational. Right now, most of them are still not operating,” he said.

Meanwhile, Lotilla said members of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry could help secure supply for participating in the interruptible load program.

He said this allowed the country to minimize the shortages in the grid, as the El Nino dry spell had a tremendous impact on demand.

“These are things that we have to prepare for because extreme weather events are likely to occur. We look forward also to new capacity coming online. We are expecting at the end of this year around 2,000 megawatts of base load power and another 2,000 MW of renewable power will help us address future demand,” he said.