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A POWER supply disruption looms at the Luzon grid as Shell Petroleum
Exploration Corp. (SPEX) is set to shutdown the Malampaya pipeline
to make way for possible repairs at the country’s largest natural
gas facility.
SPEX announced that the Malampaya gas receiving
facilities will undergo a maintenance shutdown starting today to
investigate a possible gas leak and make necessary repairs on its
control valves.
The company said the repairs could take as short
as a day to as long as six months depending on the extent of the
damage.
The said facility supplies state-owned National
Power Corp.’s (Napocor) 1,200-megawatt Ilijan plant, as well as
First Gen Corp.’s 1,000-megawatt Sta. Rita and 500-megawatt San
Lorenzo facilities.
These facilities combined generate roughly a
third of the country’s power supply.
Despite the Malampaya’s scheduled shutdown,
the generating companies assured ample supply of electricity for its
customers.
Cyril C. del Callar, Napocor president, proposed
that the Department of Energy create a task force that will assess
and make recommendations in response to the Malampaya’s impending
maintenance shutdown.
“The task force shall assist the [energy
secretary] in formulating and implementing the needed contingency
plans that will address the effects of any prolonged shutdown of the
Malampaya pipeline,” he said.
Del Callar said the task force should look into
interim regulatory solutions to the additional expenses resulting
from higher fuel and procurement costs to replace the displaced
natural gas from the Malampaya.
Jori Limatta, First Gas operations and
maintenance general manager, said the company, which is majority
owned by First Gen, “will still be able to run the Sta. Rita and
San Lorenzo plants at contracted levels” through its reserve fuel.
In December 2006, a 25-day maintenance shutdown
of the Malampaya gas pipeline helped push electricity prices at the
Wholesale Electricity Spot Market up as power generators had to
resort to more expensive fuel to make up for the displaced natural
gas from the field.
-- Euan Paulo C. Añonuevo
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