By JEN BAYLON
Negros Occidental Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson expressed the need for more investments in renewable energy (RE) projects in the province after the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) issued yellow and red alerts on possible rotating brownouts and load dropping last week.
“This is also a warning that we cannot depend on our power generators,” Lacson said.
“Now we need more of them,” he added.
Lacson said power shortage during summer is normal because there are more consumers using air conditioning, which further strains the supply.
“Nagkakaproblema sa power supply, and then there were unscheduled power interruptions. This is not NGCP anymore,” Lacson said.
“I think this is already the power generator. So definitely nagkaka-affected,” the governor added.
Eighteen power plants across the country were under forced outages last week, with 10 of them operating at derated capacities, the NGCP reported on Friday, April 19.
At least 757.7 megawatts (MW) were unavailable to the grid.
A red alert is issued when power supply cannot meet the demands of the transmission grid’s regulating requirements, while a yellow alert indicates that the operating margin is not enough to meet the grid’s contingency needs.
Earlier, the Department of Energy (DOE) said Negros Island has 1,231.7 MW indicative power projects which are currently in the pre-development stage.
These include solar projects slated for the cities of Bacolod, Victorias, Cadiz, and Silay, as well as Calatrava town; a hydroelectric power plant in Sagay City; a wind power project in Pulupandan town, and battery energy storage in Cadiz.
The projects will also generate an additional 1,000 MW of RE in Negros until 2040, the DOE said.
The department said Negros also has a total of 155.6 MW committed power projects which are set to be implemented or have already started.
Committed projects include battery energy storage in Murcia town and San Carlos City; a geothermal power plant in Bago City; a solar project in Silay; and a biomass fired power plant in Victorias.
“[These are] the incoming projects here in Negros. Please take note that all are RE,” Engineer Jose Rey Maleza, chief of the DOE-Visayas Energy Industry Management Division, said during the Negros Island Power Forum in Bacolod last March.
Maleza said, based on the sub-grid power demands, Negros has a total installed capacity of 910 MW, and only 692 MW is on dependable capacity.
“Under the generation mix, 99.1 percent of power plants in Negros generate RE. Basically, all REs are in Negros,” he said./ With reports from PNA / JB, WDJ