The Department of Energy must come up with a contingency plan to make sure there will be enough supply of electricity amid the intensifying effect of the El Niño phenomenon, Senator Win Gatchalian said Sunday. 

Gatchalian, who is the vice-chair of the Senate Committee on Energy, said the energy department needs to ensure that all the necessary repairs and preventive maintenance will be undertaken before the peak of the summer months to prevent unforeseen outages. 

The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical, and Astronomical Services Administration forecast the country is expected to experience the peak of the El Niño phenomenon in the summer months.

In 2022, the senator cited about 9 percent of the country's power capacity was generated from hydroelectric power plants.

“El Niño is going to be a big concern for our country not just in terms of food security but also energy security,” Gatchalian said.

“A big chunk of our hydro areas will be experiencing drought, and their output will be curtailed which will have an impact on some parts of the country, so we need to have a contingency plan for that, especially during the hot months,” he added.

Gatchalian urged the DOE to cushion the impact of drought season on the energy sector. 

“All the preventive maintenance should be done now so that when the summer months come, the plants will be running at full capacity and the DOE needs to monitor this very carefully,” he said.

Gatchalian emphasized that power plants are particularly vulnerable to breakdowns during summer months amid high demand. 

He added DOE needs to ensure that no unscheduled outages within communities. 

The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council recently reported the damage to agriculture due to the impact of El Niño has already reached over P1 billion.