(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Congress aims to give President Aquino special powers within the month to resolve a looming electricity shortage next year.
House of Representatives Committee on Energy Chairman Reynaldo Umali said over the weekend that the Senate and House are working together to deliver the emergency powers to Aquino as soon as possible.
"Since the President wants to fast-track the solution, we need to pass this within November," he said.
The Oriental Mindoro lawmaker said Senate energy committee chairman Sergio Osmeña III is willing to support the joint resolution.
"We are running out of time," he said. "There are tax perks, such as VAT (value added tax)-exemption, that need to be granted to Interruptible Load Programme (ILP) participants that would require legislation. But we do not have time for that anymore. That is the reason why the President should be granted special powers."
Last Friday, the House committee on energy filed the joint resolution granting Aquino special powers to tap additional capacity for the summer of 2015.
Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr is the resolution's principal author.
Joint Resolution 21 authorises Aquino to provide for the establishment of additional power-generating capacity as mandated by Republic Act 9136, the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA), to effectively address the projected shortage of the supply of electricity in the Luzon grid from March to July 2015.
"Additional generating capacity shall be sourced from the Interruptible Load Program, fast-tracking of committed projects, and plants for interconnection and rehabilitation," read the resolution.
The ILP is a programme where big power users will be asked to run their own generators when demand is high instead of getting their supply from the Luzon grid.
Electricity that would not be taken from the grid would be available to households and other users, sparing them from rotating blackouts.
The cost of running the generators of big power users would be exempted from value-added tax.
Big power users with their self-generating capacities have until December 31 to sign up for the programme. Those failing to sign up on or before the deadline would not be compensated even if they run their own generators during the summer months.
Umali said the ILP's success would largely depend on the cooperation of malls, factories and other private establishments in running their own generators.
"Big power users will be asked to use their own power for two to three hours for five days a week to ease demand from the grid," he said.
Companies participating in the ILP would be compensated 7.5 centavos per kilowatt-hour, he added.
The resolution is based on the premise that the Luzon grid would have a maximum projected shortage of 1,004 megawatts or 600MW of the required dispatchable reserves and 404MW of required contingency reserves.
Dispatchable reserves are offline plants that can be turned on when power supply falls while the contingency reserve is equivalent to the highest online power plant.
The resolution mandates the Department of Energy (DOE) to formulate the implementing rules within 30 days upon its approval.
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