DOE to allow longer power plant maintenance works

By Alena Mae S. Flores – May 19, 2024, 8:25 pm
from manilastandard.net

Energy Secretary Raphael Lotilla

The Department of Energy (DOE) plans to allow longer maintenance period for power plants to avoid breakdowns that could lead to outages.

“We should allow also the plants sufficient time to do their maintenance work,” Energy Secretary Raphael Lotilla said.

He said other countries like Japan have longer periods for maintenance works.

“They will be able to take a deep dive into really inspect the different parts of the plant…Preventive maintenance is very important. And just like in aircraft, you have to have regular maintenance to be done. And enough time to carry out the maintenance,” the energy chief said.

He said while the DOE wanted a longer maintenance schedule, other factors also affects the schedule.

“For example, during this period of very high temperatures, when the thermal plants were severely affected in the performance of their plants, we’ve also had to reschedule, in anticipation of El Nino, the rehabilitation works that have to be done within a very limited period,” Lotilla said.

Based on the Energy Regulatory Commission, the allowable planned and unplanned outage days differ per technology, but ranges from 6.5 days to 32.7 days for planned outage and 6.8 days to 27.8 days for unplanned outages.

Lotilla also addressed concerns raised by senators for the regulators to conduct regular plant visits to ensure the reliability of the power plants.

“I think the concern is that are they able to live up to the standards of reliability that the Energy Regulatory Commission has imposed. And there are metrics for this. But as you know all, the existing power of the ERC to impose penalties is limited,” Lotilla said.

He said the penalties “may not produce the kind of deterrent effect that we would like to have.”

“But in other jurisdictions, the first line of defense of course is with the plants themselves. In other words, they voluntarily take on the responsibility for making sure that they are able to adhere to the standards required of them,” he said.

He said the DOE is also tapping artificial intelligence to look into alleged collusion concerns among energy players.

“We are introducing artificial intelligence and big data analytics in order to identify possible aberrant behavior or anti-competitive behavior, if any. And this can be a basis for ERC and the Philippine Competition Commission to act on,” Lotilla said.

He said DOE commissioned third parties composed of Filipino academics to conduct the data analytics.