Natural gas plants allowed to use diesel

MANILA, Philippines – Natural gas plants are now cleared to run on pure diesel in times of shortage in the supply of natural gas to ensure energy security after the measure allowing this flexibility has lapsed into law.

Republic Act 10745, which lapsed into law last Feb. 26, allows natural gas power plants to use neat diesel as an alternative fuel, exempting those facilities from the use of biodiesel as required under the Biofuels Act of 2006.

Under the Biofuels Act, liquid fuels for motors and engines should contain a minimum of two percent biodiesel blend.

Biofuels and natural gas are considered as cleaner sources of fuel. Biofuels come from biological organisms or their wastes while natural gas is formed from plants and gases buried underground.

But under the new policy, “natural gas power generating plants may use neat diesel as their alternative fuel during shortages of natural gas supplies.”

In a phone interview with The STAR, Oriental Mindoro Rep. Reynaldo Umali said neat diesel is a cleaner form of diesel that allows gas-fired facilities to run at optimum levels when natural gas is not available.

“When Malampaya is under maintenance, gas plants are run using bio-diesel, which reduces the capacity of the power plant by 400 megawatts (MW),” he said. “if we use neat diesel, we can optimize the operations of a power plant and not sacrificing its full output.”

To ensure compliance, the Department of Energy (DOE) is tasked to monitor the authority granted to use neat diesel shall only be availed of “directly or indirectly” by natural gas power plants.

The three existing natural gas plants in the country, namely the 1,200-MW Ilijan, 1,000-MW Santa Rita and 500-MW San Lorenzo natural gas plants all located in Batangas, are critical since these cover nearly a third of the power requirements of the Luzon grid.

The Ilijan power plant is owned by Korea Electric Power Corp. (Kepco) through its wholly owned unit Kepco Philippines.

Meanwhile, First Gen Corp. owns and operates the 1,000-MW Santa Rita and 500-MW San Lorenzo natural gas plants, collectively known as First Gas plants.

But for this particular law, Umali said only the 1,200-MW Ilijan natural gas power plant is covered by the exemption.

Officials of Kepco Philippines were sought to comment on the measure but no one was available.

In a separate phone interview, First Gen executive vice president Ernesto Pantangco said this measure will have no effect on natural gas plants owned by the company.

“There will be no impact as First Gas plants are designed for dual operation. We can choose which fuel, i.e. diesel, condensate, etc., is cheaper,” he said.