Plant operator warns of tight electricity supply next year

BY LENIE LECTURA – NOVEMBER 17, 2021
from Business Mirror

The operator of the 440-megawatt (MW) coal-fired power plant warned that electricity supply by the hot dry season next year will be “very difficult” as only one facility is expected to come online to serve Luzon’s growing demand.

“I think it’s going to be a very difficult summer. I think only one new power station has come into the energy mix in Luzon, up north a 660 megawatts (MW) super critical coal power plant. Aside from that, there are no new power stations coming into the market,” said Quezon Power Philippines Ltd. Co. (QPPL) Managing Director Frank Thiel during the Asian Power Thermal Energy Conference held Wednesday.

GNPD Unit 2 is expected to come online in the first quarter of next year. Demand during the hot dry season is at its peak because of warmer temperature. The elections next year will also boost demand.

“The summer is going to be very challenging. We also have elections at that time. We’ve been given a directive by the government that we cannot take any shutdowns two months before and two months after the election period, which presents a bit of a challenge as well.

So I think, I think to summarize, this can be a very tight situation. I think we will have barely enough provided all the plants are there at the same time and we will not have any surprises.”

Electricity demand is fast recovering as the government has relaxed quarantine restrictions in the country, particularly the National Capital Region.  “Next year, the demand keeps increasing. Pre-pandemic, we had a certain demand. During the pandemic, the demand dropped and I think a lot of projects were put on a lull because of that situation.

In Luzon, the economy started taking off again. Demand has increased and is back to pre-pandemic levels. Next year is going to be very tough,” Thiel said.

QPPL will be placed on planned outage next year for 45 days, the longest in 15 years. Thiel said the maintenance work is necessary to avoid “bigger problems” in the future.

“Normally, we only do about 25-30 days of the most, but we have no choice. We have to do the maintenance. We have been deferring for two years already. We cannot keep running the plant. We could have potentially bigger problems, so we have to do it. The plant missed the maintenance and we now have the opportunity to bring our technical advisors,” added Thiel.

QPPL has deferred its planned maintenance before due to strict travel restrictions.

“We were not able to bring technical advisors. We rely on technical advisors to come in and help us for maintenance during the planned outages of the units. We haven’t been able to do very much of that over the last two years. And so, next year, we’re going to try and basically do three years worth of maintenance in one outage and hoping that everything will come together and then we’ll be back then be available to the grid.

So when people ask me, what’s my forecast about next year’s power supply situation, I think it’s going to be very tight. I think it will be very challenging.”