Meralco sees new round of tight supply

By Myrna M. Velasco – September 17, 2019, 10:00 PM
from Manila Bulletin

Luzon grid could be plunged into new round of supply tightening starting the first week of October given the delay on the commercial operations of the 500-megawatt San Buenaventura coal-fired power project in Quezon province.

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The plant’s commercial operation date (COD), which was targeted September 15, had been pushed back because the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) has not yet issued its certificate of compliance (COC), the ultimate permit the facility needs so it can already move forward into commercial operations.

The ERC, according to Meralco President and CEO Ray C. Espinosa, raised questions on the water rights accorded by the National Water Resources Board (NWRB), hence, the delay in their ruling on the issuance of COC for the power plant’s operation.

Espinosa indicated they already informed the Department of Energy (DOE) on the feared new round of supply tightening next month because several plants will be on scheduled maintenance shutdown.

And while some capacity will be out from the system on their downtime, he emphasized that the San Buenaventura plant will be an essential shield for spare consumers from brownouts or service interruptions next month.

“We have alerted the DOE already that there are scheduled outages already in October – as early as the first week and we asked them to help us also to resolve this issue on water rights,” the Meralco executive stressed.

He added that by the first week of October, there are generating facilities that will be on shutdown and this will result in 600 to 900 megawatts of capacity being taken out from the system.

“There are several plants that will have their scheduled maintenance shutdown –so we’ve already planned for that, but we should be very careful on supply. We have contracted plants, but this San Buenaventura is important because this will add 455MW net capacity – and you know supply is always tight,” Espinosa stressed.

Based on data that was submitted to the DOE, the plants on scheduled outages will be: the unit 2 of the Ilijan plant; San Lorenzo gas plant, one module of the Santa Rita gas plant, unit 2 of Southwest Luzon Power Generation Corporation, unit 2 of the Masinloc plant; and units 1 and 2 of the Sual plant.

The Malampaya gas production facility will also be on scheduled shutdown from October 12-15, and almost simultaneously, the 600MW unit 1 of the Ilijan gas-fired plant will be on maintenance from October 3-15.

There were also several plants that had been recently on forced outages including the Calaca unit 1, SMC Consolidated Power Corporation, Sual Unit 2; and the South Luzon Thermal Energy Corporation’s units 1 and 2 generating plants.

The power plants with de-rated capacities include unit 2 of the Calaca plant, San Gabriel, Ilijan unit 2, and Masinloc unit 2 facilities.