Energy secretary urges public to go solar

CEBU CITY — As the country anticipates an average of 20 typhoons and other natural disasters yearly, the Department of Energy (DOE) is urging the public to install solar photovoltaic systems (RSPVs) in their rooftops.

RSPVs is a renewable energy system, which uses modules to convert sunlight to electricity.

Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi, in a press conference, said this is to ensure that there will be continuous power supply in disaster-stricken areas in the advent of natural calamities.

Cusi made the call following the months-old problem of power deficiency in the Visayas grid after a magnitude-6.5 earthquake jolted Jaro town in Leyte and a magnitude 5.4 aftershock struck Ormoc City last July, which caused power plants there to become dysfunctional until now.

As a result, rotational outages are still being implemented every now and then by electric distribution companies region-wide, as per the request of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP).

DOE Assistant Secretary Redentor Delola explained that the Visayas region lacks a 200 to 300-megawatt installed capacity due to the damages caused by the earthquake and that the scheduled maintenance of power plants.

Moreover, the substation that houses the interconnection of Luzon to the Visayas, which could have provided 400 megawatts, was also damaged by the earthquake.

But Delola said he was informed by the NGCP that the issue on insufficient power supply in the Visayas grid will be resolved not later than this month since the link between the two regions will soon be repaired.

“With the plants coming back and the interconnection to be repaired, hopefully within the month, we’re hoping that the power supply will be restored to normal,” he said.

In an advisory dated September 7, the NGCP placed the Visayas grid under a “red alert” status due to “generation deficiency resulting from the unavailability of some units of earthquake-affected geothermal plants in Leyte.”

On that same day, the peak demand was at 1,853 megawatts, while the available capacity was only 1,847 megawatts.

The NGCP said it is constantly “working to restore the earthquake-damaged converter station in Ormoc to allow import of power from Luzon which can augment the power supply in Visayas.”