The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
By Riza Lozada
Maintenance work on the Malampaya natural gas facility was completed without a hitch, Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi said.
Earlier, the Department of Energy (DOE) raised the possibility of power supply being disrupted during the Malampaya maintenance on Jan. 28 to Feb. 16 next year.
Cusi said the DOE and industry stakeholders made preparations before the actual shutdown to safeguard energy consumers from the possible impact of the maintenance on supply and prices of electricity.
“The measures undertaken helped avert any power outage as a result of the Malampaya shutdown. Throughout the Malampaya downtime, the power supply reserve was maintained at normal levels. We are grateful for having hurdled the critical period that could have resulted in the issuance of grid alerts,” said Cusi.
Natural gas supply from Malampaya is readily available for use by its customers, the Malampaya consortium, consisting of Shell Philippines Exploration BV, Chevron Malampaya LLC and PNOC Exploration Corp., said Thursday.
The consortium also reported that all maintenance activities were done taking into account the safety of all personnel.
The Malampaya facility supplies natural gas to the 1,000-megawatt (MW) Sta. Rita plant, the 500-MW San Lorenzo plant, the 1,200-MW Ilijan plant, the 97-MW Avion plant, and the 414-MW San Gabriel plant, all in Batangas.
Meanwhile, Cusi called on the public to continue adopting energy efficiency and conservation efforts as these have helped cushion the impact of the Malampaya shutdown.
“The DOE will aggressively pursue demand-side management in consonance with the thrust of legislators in yesterday’s (Thursday) Joint Congressional Power Committee hearing to move towards the same direction,” Cusi said.