FOLLOWING reports of brownouts, the Department of Energy (DOE) directed the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) to make a full accounting of the power supply disruptions in Luzon and Visayas regions.
The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) for its part ordered the Chinese-controlled NGCP to submit a comprehensive incident report on the outages.
The NGCP earlier placed Luzon and Visayas grids under yellow and red alert status.
CONSUMERS AT RISK
According to Energy Secretary Sharon Garin, the power outages adversely affected the economy even as she claimed that incidents placed millions of Filipino consumers at risk.
“The DOE is focused on ensuring stable power supply, protecting consumers, and enforcing accountability across the power sector,” DOE Secretary Sharon Garin said.
“The public deserves a full and transparent accounting of the incidents that led to these grid alerts, and we are requiring NGCP to comply fully with all reportorial and regulatory obligations,” the energy chief added.
In a separate statement, the NGCP vowed to comply with the order and submit pertinent reports — “NGCP’s current efforts are focused on maintaining the stability of the Luzon and Visayas grids while awaiting the normalization of supply.”
“Currently, an investigation into the events that affected both grids over the past few days is already underway,” it added.
ULTIMATUM FOR NGCP
Hardest hit by the power outages from May 12 to 14 were more than 200,000 electricity consumer accounts in Metro Manila, Bulacan and component provinces in the Calabarzon region.
DOE technical teams have already been dispatched to verify the status of all affected generating units and transmission facilities, and assess whether NGCP and concerned generation companies complied with dispatch instructions and restoration timelines during the alert period.
The DOE said is expecting a detailed NGCP report covering specific dates, time, duration, and areas affected by each alert declaration; cause of supply deficiency or grid contingency; list of generating units, transmission lines, and facilities that experienced forced outages; and reduced availability reserve and demand levels at the time of each alert.
POWER RESTORATION
The agency also sought immediate corrective and load management measures undertaken; the restoration timeline and normalization actions
all related coordination with the DOE, ERC, and concerned generation companies
The DOE also emphasizes that under ERC Resolution No. 13, Series of 2010, NGCP is separately obligated to submit an initial report within 60 minutes from the time of any system disruption. Compliance with this reportorial requirement is being closely monitored by both the DOE and the ERC.
“The DOE will continue to closely monitor grid conditions in both Luzon and Visayas, assess residual supply risks, and coordinate with NGCP, the ERC, the Independent Electricity Market Operator of thePhilippines (IEMOP), distribution utilities, and all concerned generation companies to ensure the full restoration of supply adequacy,” Garin quipped.
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