Government prepares for Malampaya shutdown in October
MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Energy is preparing for the impending shutdown of the Malampaya natural gas facility in October as this is expected to put an upward pressure on electricity prices.
The agency is looking at alternative measures to alleviate the strain on supply and pricing when the Malampaya gas facility commences its scheduled shutdown in October, DOE Undersecretary Emmanuel Juaneza said in a virtual press conference.
“We’re looking hard on that, the directive of Secretary (Alfonso) Cusi is we don’t want to lose power supply from any of those generating plants using the Malampaya gas,” he said.
Juaneza said there would be a cost impact with the Malampaya shutdown since gas-fired power plants relying on the facility’s supply would have to run on a more expensive liquid fuel.
However, the agency has yet to finalize the price impact of the shutdown.
“Definitely, the cost impact is there, and the strategy is to get all other plants firing on conventional fuel to be back online to cover the gap of power inefficiency in the event the October Malampaya shutdown is carried out,” Juaneza said.
“We’re looking at Dinginin and other power stations that can provide power in case we lose the power plants fired on natural gas,” he said.
He was referring to the 668-megawatt (MW) Unit 1 coal-fired power plant of GNPower Dinginin Ltd. Co. (GNPD), which is targeting to start commercial operations within the quarter.
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