Gatchalian: Is there enough power supply for 2022 elections?

Despite pronouncements that there will be no brownouts during the week of the May 2022 elections, Senator Win Gatchalian wants the Senate to conduct an inquiry on the plans and preparations of the Department of Energy (DOE) and other stakeholders to ensure the uninterrupted electricity supply.

“It is crucial that programs are already in place, taking into account all eventualities to guarantee continuous supply of electricity during the 2022 automated elections,” the chair of the Senate energy committee said.

“We must ensure the credibility and transparency in the conduct of elections as well as the delivery of fast and accurate results reflective of the genuine will of the people,” Gatchalian said in filing Senate Resolution 867.

While the DOE already assured that there will be no yellow alerts and power interruptions during the election week as the initial outlook shows sufficient supply, Gatchalian emphasized that this outlook does not take into consideration the forced and unplanned outages of power plants and the declining supply from the Malampaya gas field.

He cited the rotational brownouts during the summer of 2019 and the period from March to May this year that were attributed to unplanned outages and derating of power plans, among other reasons.

“Power interruptions last summer happened despite earlier statements from the DOE that it was optimistic that the country will not encounter major challenges or any alerts that may result in insufficiency of supply’,” he pointed out.

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Source: Latest Politics News Today (Politics.com.ph)