ENERGY TASK FORCE. Department of Energy-Region 7 (Central Visayas) Acting Director Jose Rey Maleza (second from left) announces the Energy Task Force Election has been activated to ensure enough power supply on the May 13 election during the PIA forum in Cebu City on Thursday (April 25, 2019). Also in photo (left to right) are Visayan Electric Company chief operating officer Anton Mari Perdices; National Grid Corporation of the Philippines Visayas network manager Diosdado Sandulan; NGCP operations and maintenance manager Ricardo Lozano; and PIA-7 information officer Hazel Gloria. (Photo by John Rey Saavedra)
CEBU CITY – As the power industry players in Cebu province prepare for the upcoming elections, the Department of Energy (DOE) in Central Visayas on Thursday said a task force has now been activated to ensure enough power supply for the May 13 nationwide political exercise.
DOE-7 (Central Visayas) Acting Director Jose Rey Maleza said the Energy Task Force Election (ETFE) is activated as mandated by the Commission on Elections, while the power industry players are busy preparing for measures to ensure enough power supply.
“We would like to stress that our preparation is not only for the election. We have an incoming special event that we put more emphasis on,” Maleza said in a forum held here, organized by the Philippine Information Agency (PIA-7).
In a message sent to the Philippine News Agency (PNA), Maleza said the task force was created under DOE Department Circular No. DC2018-05-0014 and chaired by Energy Undersecretary Alexander Lopez, with its members coming from the power industry.
Under this circular, the task force is mandated “to ensure adequate, stable and reliable energy supply before, during and after elections.”
The circular also provides for the composition of the core group headed by the DOE, with National Electrification Administration (NEA), National Transmission Corporation (TransCo), Philippine National Oil Company (PNOC), Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM), Philippine Electricity market Corp. (PEMC), National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP), and Manila Electric Company (Meralco) as its members.
The task force has two sub-groups – Supporting Organizations and the Security Group.
The six agencies under the Support Organizations are the Philippine Rural Electric Cooperatives Association Inc. (PHILRECA), Philippine Electric Plan Owners Association (PEPOA), Philippine Independent Power Producers Association (PIPPA), Retail Electricity Suppliers Association (RESA), Philippine Institute of Petroleum (PIP), and Independent Philippine Petroleum Companies Association (IPPCA).
The National Security Council (NSC) is on top of the five agencies of government under the Security Group, along with the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP), Philippine National Police (PNP), Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP), and Philippine Coast Guard (PCG).
“All power suppliers and service providers particularly distribution utilities (DUs), privately-owned, electric cooperatives (ECs), Local Government Unit-Owned, and the power generation companies, upstream and downstream companies are directed to provide full support and participation to attain the objectives…,” the circular read.
Aside from the monitoring and reporting scheme in ensuring immediate power restoration in case of outages and establishing measures to mitigate outages, the DOE is tasked to establish an Energy Command Center to support the task force on a 24/7 basis.
The command center is mandated to link with the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Operation Center.
Visayan Electric Company (VECO) chief operating officer Anton Mari Perdices said in the forum that the power distribution firm is prepared in case of any eventualities “not just during the election period but for this year and the years to come.”
“The risk mitigation that we are doing is to ensure that if ever there is an outage we will restore,” Perdices said.
NGCP operations and maintenance management division manager Ricardo Lozano said the power grid management firm has been closely working with the DOE and VECO to ensure supply of power during the election period. (PNA)
