SAFE FROM TAAL ERUPTION. Department of Energy (DOE) officials said facilities of oil and power firms in Batangas are safe even the Alert Level 5 will be raised at Taal Volcano. In photo are: (from left to right) Oil Industry Management Bureau director Rino Abad, DOE Undersecretary Felix William Fuentebella, and Electric Power Industry Management Bureau director Mario Marasigan, in a press briefing at DOE headquarters in Bonifacio Global City, Taguig City on Friday (Jan.24, 2020). (PNA photo by Kris Crismundo)
MANILA – If worse comes to worst, damage to oil refineries, depots, and import terminals as well as power plants is not seen even if an Alert Level 5 will be raised at Taal Volcano, an energy official said.
DOE Undersecretary Felix William Fuentebella said Friday ways to protect the facilities are already in place if the worst-scenario will happen in Taal Volcano “in accordance with the Level 5 projection.”
In a press briefing, he said the worst-case scenario for firms in the energy sector will be shutting down of their facilities in the affected areas as they are not within the 14-kilometer radius danger zone of Taal Volcano.
Fuentebella said there are no power plants within the Taal Volcano danger zone, only transmission and distribution lines.
“If the scenario will worsen, we have safety protocols. It is an S.O.P. (standard operating procedure) to protect the power plants. We have identified the safety protocols,” Fuentebella said in Filipino.
He noted that among the safety protocols include reducing capacities of power plants that are in Batangas.
If that will be the case, the DOE will signal to power companies in the northern part of Luzon to ramp up their capacities to limit the impact in the Luzon grid.
Import terminals, refinery, and depots of oil firms in Region 4-A (Calabarzon) also are outside the danger zone, Oil Industry Management Bureau director Rino Abad said.
Abad noted that there is one refinery in Batangas owned by Shell, as well as eight import terminals and three distribution depots in the affected areas – all of them are operational.
He said facilities of liquefied petroleum gas are in Batangas City, Calaca, and Mabini, which are outside the 14-kilometer danger zone.
“If they will raise to Alert Level 5, if ever they will shut down Batangas (oil facilities) and Calabarzon will be affected, we can get from Subic, where the majority of import terminals are in, and we also have refinery in Bataan,” Abad said in Filipino. (PNA)
