OPINION
Nic Satur Jr.
Ensure No Brownouts For Election Integrity Via Ancillary Service Procurement Agreements
With just four (4) days before the elections, Kuryente.org asks the Department of Energy (DOE), Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) and the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) — where are the reserves?
“The NGCP is requesting that the May 9-11 period be declared a holiday for government agencies to ensure ample power supply for the transmission of votes. This is a knee-jerk move that apparently shows the NGCP is delaying its compliance to DOE orders to sign firm Ancillary Service Procurement Agreements (ASPA) to ensure the stability of the grid especially during the elections,” Nic Satur, National Kuryente.org coordinator said.
“The NGCP had all the time to prepare for the elections by signing firm electricity reserve contracts and building enough infrastructure to allow entry to the grid of all available power plants. Now they resort to asking the government for a holiday sacrifice to have enough power for our electricity-dependent automated elections. The NGCP needs to explain to the public why they are deliberately delaying compliance to DOE orders (DC 2021-10-0031). On the other hand, the ERC – the policeman of the energy sector – has so far seemed okay with the NGCP circumventing its rules and orders,” Satur added.
“The current power supply, although not short, is just barely enough - reserves are thin. If one or two major power plants go offline during elections we don’t have enough firm reserves [see NGCPpoweroutlook] to kick in and keep the polling precincts alight and voting machines running. In tight and critical elections like this there should be no brownouts anywhere in the country. We need to show that the elections are fair, transparent and the ballots are counted and transmitted,” Satur said.
“The NGCP is requesting that the May 9-11 period be declared a holiday for government agencies to ensure ample power supply for the transmission of votes. This is a knee-jerk move that apparently shows the NGCP is delaying its compliance to DOE orders to sign firm Ancillary Service Procurement Agreements (ASPA) to ensure the stability of the grid especially during the elections,” Nic Satur, National Kuryente.org coordinator said.
“The NGCP had all the time to prepare for the elections by signing firm electricity reserve contracts and building enough infrastructure to allow entry to the grid of all available power plants. Now they resort to asking the government for a holiday sacrifice to have enough power for our electricity-dependent automated elections. The NGCP needs to explain to the public why they are deliberately delaying compliance to DOE orders (DC 2021-10-0031). On the other hand, the ERC – the policeman of the energy sector – has so far seemed okay with the NGCP circumventing its rules and orders,” Satur added.
“The current power supply, although not short, is just barely enough - reserves are thin. If one or two major power plants go offline during elections we don’t have enough firm reserves [see NGCPpoweroutlook] to kick in and keep the polling precincts alight and voting machines running. In tight and critical elections like this there should be no brownouts anywhere in the country. We need to show that the elections are fair, transparent and the ballots are counted and transmitted,” Satur said.
May 4, 2022
