ENERGY Secretary Angelo Reyes is meeting stakeholders from the power industry next week to draft possible solutions to the impending El Nino phenomenon.
He said the meeting, which is slated to take place on February 4, will not only include stakeholders from Luzon but also from Visayas and Mindanao.
“We want to be sure that the brownouts last week will not happen again,” Reyes said.
At present, hydro plants are not on proper working conditions. Hydro plants accounts for almost 20 percent of the power generation mix.
“If there is somebody who will be hit by the drought situation it would be the power sector then irrigation and then domestic use. As always we want to prepare for the worst situation where the droughts will be too severe,” Reyes said during the meeting at the Department of Energy (DOE) main office in Taguig City.
Distribution utilities Manila Water Co. Inc. and Maynilad Water Services Inc. have asked state-run National Power Corp. (Napocor) not to get water from the Angat Dam for its power generation due to declining water level in the Dam.
Angat Dam serves as the main source of water supply for 15 million residents of Metro Manila.
Reyes called the stakeholders meeting Thursday to determine the cause of the power interruptions that took place last Monday resulting in rotating brownouts in several parts of Metro Manila as well as in Bulacan, Cavite, and Laguna.
The rotating brownouts were due to tripping of the one unit of the 1,000 megawatt Sual coal-fired power plant. (MSN/Sunnex)