{"id":11437,"date":"2014-05-22T02:21:03","date_gmt":"2014-05-21T18:21:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=11437"},"modified":"2014-05-22T02:21:03","modified_gmt":"2014-05-21T18:21:03","slug":"lawmakers-urge-malacanang-to-declare-power-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/05\/22\/lawmakers-urge-malacanang-to-declare-power-crisis\/","title":{"rendered":"Lawmakers urge Malacanang to declare power crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"ShutterStock<\/a>
ShutterStock image<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While Malacanang remains silent on the issue, some lawmakers are already urging\u00a0the President to declare a power crisis after the recent power outage and system\u00a0shutdowns reported in Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think that\u2019s the mindset of the President, to declare that there\u2019s a power crisis,\u201d\u00a0he said. \u201cAcknowledging the crisis is already part of the solution. These are problems\u00a0that they cannot deny and things could get worse with such a stance,\u201d Abakada-Guro\u00a0Rep. Jonathan de la Cruz told reporters.<\/p>\n

He also added that Malacanang is denying the existence of a power crisis despite the\u00a0fact that rotating blackouts reported in Mindanao have reached Metro Manila.<\/p>\n

Other members of the independent bloc in the House of Representatives are also\u00a0urging the President to declare \u201cpower crisis\u201d saying that denials will only lead to more\u00a0blackouts.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to hear it straight from them: Are we in a power crisis or not?\u201d Leyte Rep.\u00a0Ferdinand Romualdez, leader of the independent bloc, said in an interview for the\u00a0Phiippine Star, adding that they will be inviting officials of the Department of Energy\u00a0(DOE), National Power Corp. (Napocor), and NGCP to the House Question Hour in\u00a0order find out the actual status of power supply nationwide.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore importantly, we want to find out what makes it seemingly impossible for\u00a0the government to solve the power crisis in Mindanao and to eliminate blackouts\u00a0nationwide.\u201d Romualdez added.<\/p>\n

Visayas grid remains on red alert\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

After the alert was raised last Monday, Visayas grid remained on red alert yesterday\u00a0because of zero reserves caused by the scheduled shutdown of three power plants.<\/p>\n

Cebu Energy Development Corp.\u2019s Cebu facility, Panay Energy Development Corp.\u2019s\u00a0Iloilo unit, and Energy Development Corp.\u2019s Leyte facility are among those three units\u00a0who went on a scheduled shutdown and are expected to be back online this week.<\/p>\n

With only 1,477 megawatts system capacity on Tuesday, the National Grid Corporation\u00a0(NGCP) said they fall short for the peak demand of 1,522 MW leading to a power\u00a0outage of less than an hour in some parts of Cebu starting at 1:20 in the afternoon.<\/p>\n

When power is rationed, manual load dropping or the process that power distributors\u00a0implement when supply is insufficient took 20 to 30 according to an NGCP source.<\/p>\n

The Visayas grid has zero reserves because three power plants went on scheduled\u00a0shutdown. These are\u00a0To address the problem, Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho Petilla said the Luzon grid will\u00a0be supporting the current insufficiencies in the Visayas grid adding that the Sual plant, a\u00a0unit which turned offline Thusday night is back online and the Caliraya hydropower plant\u00a0can also be used.<\/p>\n

This is despite the fact that Luzon grid was also placed on red alert last Friday after\u00a0Pagbilao plant in Quezon province broke down because of a valve problem.<\/p>\n

With Reports from Iris Gonzales<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While Malacanang remains silent on the issue, some lawmakers are already urging\u00a0the President to declare a power crisis after the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":11468,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[95],"tags":[3828],"class_list":["post-11437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ph","tag-power-crisis","mauthors-lei-fontamillas","mauthors-philippine-canadian-inquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11437\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}