MANILA, Philippines- Asahan na ang mas maraming yellow at red alerts sa mga darating na linggo lalo pa’t nalampasan na ng bansa ang tinatayang demand nito bunsod na rin ng umiiral na heat levels sa gitna ng El Niño.
Sinabi ni Department of Energy (DOE) Undersecretary Rowena Cristina Guevarra, ang alerts ay depende sa kalagayan ng planta at maaaring umabot sa red alert status kapag ang planta ay nagkaroon ng ‘unscheduled outages’ na nakita nito lamang unang bahagi ng buwan.
“What we expect is that in the next few weeks until middle of May, we are going to have yellow alerts and possibly red alerts in some areas,” ayon kay Guevarra.
“If none of our plants are going to go offline, then perhaps it’s just yellow alert but as you’ve noticed in the past week, several plants went offline and that resulted in having red alerts so that one we cannot predict,” dagdag na wika nito.
Sa ulat, ang major grids ng bansa ay inilagay sa yellow alerts, araw ng Huwebes, ipinahihiwatig na ang operating margins ay hindi sapat para matugunan ang contingency requirements ng transmission grids.
Ang Luzon grid mula ala-1 ng tanghali hanggang alas- 5 ng hapon at mula alas-7 ng gabi hanggang alas-11 ng gabi at ang Visayas grid naman ay mula ala-1 ng tanghali hanggang alas-4 ng hapon; mula alas-6 ng gabi hanggang alas-7 ng gabi at mula alas-8 ng gabi hanggang alas-9 ng gabi.
“We can only predict the demand increase based on the heat index and we can see that there will be yellow alert based on the head index alert,” ayon kay Guevarra.
Matatandaang sinabi ng DOE noong nakaraang taon na walang red o yellow alerts na maaasahan ngayong taon sa kabila ng El Niño, sinabi nito na may ilang solar power plants ang inaasahan na darating at magbibigay ng karagdagang power supply.
“What we have for Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao is that we do not have alerts, but that was not with the assumption of the increase in demand due to the heat index,” ayon kay Guevarra.
Sa nasabi ring press conference, sinabi ni Energy Secretary Raphael Lotilla na ang currency conditions ay nananatiling isang malaking hamon habang hinahagupit ng El Niño phenomenon ang multiple sectors dahilan para magdeklara ng state of calamity ang local government units (LGUs).
“It remains a challenge and if we look at the impact of the El Niño and the El Niño phenomenon has created problems not only in the energy sector but in the agriculture sector, in water, in health, education, and so on,” wika ng opisyal.
“These are indications of a natural calamity and therefore the local government units have already in many areas in the country, have already declared such, so we are recognizing that as a fact… It’s a calamity and we are responding to it as needed,” litaniya nito.
Sa kabilang dako, sa mga darating na taon, sinabi ni Lotilla na hindi na dapat asahan pa ang red at yellow alerts dahil ang bansa ay inaasahan namang tatamaan ng La Niña dahilan para mabawasan ang power demand.
“As far as next year, because precisely of the new power plants, the new capacities that are coming in, then we’ll have adequate supply for the next year,” ayon kay Lotilla.
“Next year it’s La Niña that we are facing, not really El Niño, and therefore hydropower plants are likely to be performing optimally and therefore the need will be reduced,” dagdag na pahayag nito. Kris Jose
