DOE wants power plants repair works postponed

By Myrna M. Velasco – June 14, 2021, 7:00 AM
from Manila Bulletin

With thinning supply in the Luzon grid, the Department of Energy (DOE) is seeking postponement of the maintenance activities for the Ilijan gas-fired and Sual-coal fired power plants, the country’s biggest power generation facilities.

According to DOE Director Mario C. Marasigan of the Electric Power Industry Management Bureau, the recommendation of the department is to move the maintenance downtime for Ilijan Block-A beyond June, and for Sual plant to also adjust its maintenance schedule.

The Sual and Ilijan plants are the two biggest plants in the country – with Sual having 1,294MW capacity or at 647MW capacity per generating unit; while Ilijan is of 1,200MW capacity for two blocks or 600MW capacity per unit.
The re-scheduling of the yearly maintenance works for two of the country’s biggest plants had been among the measures pushed by the DOE to ensure that Filipinos will no longer be tormented with rotational brownouts within the months of June and July.

“What needs to be confirmed is the coordinated postponement of Ilijan Block-A to do their preventive maintenance beyond the month of June… we do understand that they are scheduling it, and NGCP (National Grid Corporation of the Philippines) has accepted it but we at the DOE, is still pushing for the postponement of such activity,” the energy official stressed.

Further, he noted that the slated preventive maintenance of the Sual plant will also be on overlap, “and we cannot allow the two facilities doing preventive maintenance at the same time.”

Marasigan thus emphasized that “if we won’t postpone the preventive maintenance of Ilijan Block A, then we have to move the preventive maintenance of Sual.”

Despite apparent strained supply in the grid, however, Energy Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi is insisting that the country is not confronted with a power crisis, instead, it was just a matter of non-compliance of some industry players.

“What we have right now is not a power crisis, but compliance issues,” the energy chief said, while noting that the tormenting brownouts last May 31 and June 1 were just triggered by simultaneous outages of power plants.

At this stage, the energy department had not presented any supply-demand outlook yet when the country will re-open its economy at a wider scale as the Covid-19 vaccination program advances.

The power industry players have been batting for comprehensive planning from the DOE, but the energy officials have been presenting a different view, despite failing on their own forecast of ‘no red alert’ or brownouts happening this year.

In the solutions presented to the Senate, the DOE batted for 100-percent reserve contracting by system operator NGCP; a return of the government to power generation business; and additional powers for DOE to sanction players although that is already a mandate vested upon the Energy Regulatory Commission.