Department Circular No. 2004-12-011

REQUIRING THE NATIONAL POWER CORPORATION, THE NATIONAL TRANSMISSION CORPORATION AND DISTRIBUTION UTILITIES TO ENSURE ADEQUATE AND RELIABLE ELECTRIC POWER SUPPLY, AND PROMOTING ENERGY CONSERVATION DURING THE CHRISTMAS HOLIDAYS

WHEREAS, it is the policy of the state to ensure the quality, reliability, security and affordability of electric power;

WHEREAS, it is the policy of the State to protect the public interest as it is affected by the services of electric utilities and other providers of electric power;

WHEREAS, with the advent of the Christmas Season, it is incumbent upon the government to ensure that the holidays can be fully enjoyed by Filipinos throughout the country, by ensuring that there will be no interruptions in the delivery of electricity;

NOW, THEREFORE, the Department of Energy is issuing this Circular.

Section 1.  Compliance.  All electric power utilities and service providers, namely the National Power Corporation (“Napocor”), National Transmission Corporation (“Transco”), National Electrification Administration (“NEA”), private power producers, Electric Cooperatives and privately-owned distribution utilities, shall be responsible to ensure that there will be no occurrence of any power interruptions in their respective areas/jurisdictions during the period from December 16, 2004 to January 2, 2005 (the “Christmas Period”), and shall implement the Power Contingency Plan hereto attached as Annex “A.”

Section 2.  Coordination with other Local Entities.  The Electric utilities and service providers, through provision of adequate and reliable power supply, shall perform the tasks in close coordination with the Local Government Units and community organizations to ensure the continuous supply of electricity during the Christmas Period.

Section 3.  Action Center.  The Napocor, Transco and NEA shall jointly establish a 24-hour Action Center to address and respond to any and all public inquiries and complaints relating to electricity-related concerns during the Christmas Period. 

Section 4.  Energy Conservation.  The DOE further enjoins the Electric Cooperatives and privately-owned distribution utilities to establish and promote energy conservation programs in accordance with the DOE conservation program regarding Christmas lights and other appliances that will be intensively used during the Christmas season, hereto attached as Annex “B.”

Section 4.  Effectivity Period.  This Department Circular shall be effective during the period from December 16, 2004, to January 2, 2005.

Fort Bonifacio, Taguig, Metro Manila, 01 December 2004.

VINCENT S.  PÉREZ, JR.

Secretary

POWER CONTINGENCY PLAN FOR THE PERIOD

DECEMBER 16, 2004 TO JANUARY 2, 2005

(Annex “A”)

1.  Transmission lines and substation equipment maintenance are suspended for the period from December 16, 2004 to January 2, 2005 (the “Christmas Period”), unless emergency in nature.

2.  Upgrading, revamping and high-risk works such as hot line maintenance on existing facilities are suspended.

3.  Big generating units on-line should operate at less than 10% of maximum capacity in order to achieve 13.2% or larger spinning reserve.  In addition, this would ensure that when big generating units trip, smaller units could easily absorb the temporary power deficiency without any system disturbance electric power service interruption.

4.  Daily operations contingency of System Operations should consider single and multiple transmission line/equipment outages.

5.  Testing and commissioning of new facilities are likewise suspended specially those with major impact to system reliability and security.

6.  Skeletal force /personnel should be on 24-hour duty as Quick Reaction Teams (QRT) for trouble-shooting transmission lines, substation equipment, protective relays, SCADA and telecommunications equipment outages.

7.  Network Protection Department /Division personnel should provide technical support to Control Operations on 24-hour basis.

8.  Prompt restoration of transmission line single outage (n-1) contingency, immediate closing of breakers of tripped transmission lines due to line – to – ground and line-to-line faults and with breakers opened at one end of the line only.

9.  After the initiation of an automatic load dropping (ALD) due to loss of generation, immediately restore system reserve margin with the following measures:

9.1.  Implement manual load dropping of feeders without underfrequency relays (UFR):

9.2.  Restore feeders activated by the UFR due to generation loss; and

9.3.  Run generating units on cold reserve.

ENERGY EFFICIENCY & CONSERVATION TIPS

FOR THE CHRISTMAS SEASON

(Annex “B”)

1.  Lower watt lights are always the better choice for Christmas lighting.  The lower the wattage, the lower the energy usage and the higher the energy savings.  The following table can be used as an energy usage guide for consumers:

Average Monthly Consumption of Christmas Lights

* Based on average electricity cost of P 6.30/kWh

2.  Consumers may wish to consider Light Emitting Diode (LED) lights for Christmas lighting as they use the least energy.  LED lights however only come in red, green and yellow.

3.  One string of mini lights uses about as much energy as a 50-watt incandescent light bulb.  One string of 25 large, traditional Christmas lights with 7-watt bulbs use as much energy as a 175-watt bulb.

4.  Households and business establishments are encouraged to limit the usage of Christmas lights from 8:00 p.m. to 10 p.m. except on Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve when usage can be extended until 1:00 a.m.  Timers are encouraged to be used to ensure observance with these schedules.

5.  Households and business establishments are encouraged to change their traditional incandescent bulbs to energy efficient compact fluorescent lamps.

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