What happens when the lights go out?
How The Energy Supply Can Make (Or Break) The Road to Recovery from COVID-19
Here’s how power outages impact the country’s response to the pandemic.
By Jel Ballesteros
Published July 23, 2021
Vaccines, which must be kept at optimal temperatures, could be rendered ineffective by a power interruption.
With more vaccines rolling out nationwide and businesses slowly reopening, the future is looking a little brighter for the Philippines. But what happens when the lights go out?
Energy supply is an often-overlooked aspect of COVID-19 recovery. The need for stable, adequate, and accessible power goes beyond keeping the lights on and the machines running at hospitals. It also keeps vaccines at optimal temperatures to keep them from expiring early. When it comes to the economy, opportunity costs are kept at a minimum, especially for businesses that have limited operations due to quarantine restrictions.
On the flip side, the lack of power can pose a threat to the country’s recovery in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Rotational brownouts in May-June 2021
The Luzon power grid supply saw shortfalls in late May and early June, which forced electric cooperatives and power distributors such as Meralco to implement rotational brownouts to address the gap between energy supply and demand.
Given the situation, the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) issued the following warnings:
- Yellow Alert: When the contingency reserve falls below required levels
- Red Alert: When there is no longer enough generation capacity to meet demand and provide regulating reserve
As early as April, the NGCP already warned of red alert conditions due to simultaneous power plant outages paired with the restricted gas output of the Malampaya field. But from May 31 to June 2, the supply situation continued to worsen as more power plants went on unplanned shutdown or de-rated their capacity, shedding off as much as 4,000-megawatts (MW) from the Luzon grid.
For several hours, key cold storage facilities and vaccination centers in the Greater Metro Manila Area were presented with the possibility of losing power, which in turn placed vaccines at risk during a time when they were needed most. The rotational brownouts caused a stir among national government officials and legislators who understood the crucial role that uninterrupted power supply played in the country’s recovery.
Throwback to the '90s
The rotational blackouts reminded many Filipinos of the national power crisis that caused persistent outages from 1989 to the early 1990s, which affected every household and business. At the time, the people experienced daily blackouts that lasted for 8-12 hours, 300 days a year. The crisis crippled businesses, led to an economic downturn, resulted in $2 billion in foregone revenues, and left three million Filipinos jobless.
The crisis successfully ended during the term of former President Fidel V. Ramos, who was granted emergency powers by Congress to expedite the entry of new power generation facilities.
What’s happening now?
While several policy changes led to significant improvements in the next two decades, the last five years have seen an alarmingly fast regression. The year 2016 saw NGCP issuing 22 yellow alerts and six red alerts. By 2019, the number of days affected by yellow and red alerts ballooned to 51 and 15, respectively, more than twice the numbers just three years prior. The power supply situation eased in 2020, as the imposition of community quarantines and mobility restrictions drastically reduced the demand for power. This 2021, however, electricity demand began to recover and recently recorded highs that exceeded pre-pandemic levels in 2019.
Since January 2021, power generation firms have been seeking help from the Department of Energy (DOE) for the delayed release of much-needed equipment and spare parts to maintain and repair their facilities. In addition, foreign consultants for maintenance activities remained barred from entering the country due to COVID-19 travel restrictions.
A series of inquiries conducted in the Senate and in the House of Representatives’ energy committees yielded more concerns than solutions, but established a clear need to put up additional generation and transmission capacity in Luzon, as well as new and expanded transmission lines to be utilized in Visayas.
The DOE and the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) have since investigated the matter, identified, and readied charges against power generation companies seen responsible for the unplanned outages.
According to Energy Undersecretary Felix William B. Fuentebella, the DOE was “after compliance [with regulations], and not penalties. But if you force our hand, we will indeed pursue these cases.”
If shortfalls in the Luzon power grid are to be prevented, the government and energy providers must cooperate to address the matter with urgency.
To learn more, contact your Relationship Manager, call 16210 or email us at corporatepartners@meralco.com.ph.
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Story originally posted on Power Club.