• CHERYL G. CRUZ
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has directed the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) Jan. 5 to make swift action on the completion of the rate reset review for system operator National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP), following the island-wide blackout that gripped Western Visayas since Jan. 2.
Marcos also ordered that the NGCP continues to abide with its statutory and regulatory obligations.
“I have directed the ERC to complete the reset of NGCP’s rates without further delay, to ensure NGCP’s compliance with its statutory and regulatory obligations, and to defend, in no uncertain terms, against any attempt to defer, delay, or prevent the implementation of regulatory measures,” the President said in a video message.
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He lamented that while power has been restored, the four-day blackout has caused significant hardship to residents, crippling businesses, compromising livelihoods, and endangering those in need of healthcare.
The NGCP said that, as of 12:34 p.m. Jan. 5, transmission operations have been normalized after power was fully restored in all affected feeders in Panay Island, following the synchronization of the remaining generating unit PCPC (Palm Concepcion Power Corporation) with a 135megawatt capacity to the grid at 1:33 this morning.
About 369.5MW is being served by Panay power plants, augmented by 35.7MW from sources elsewhere in the Visayas, for a total of 419.2MW served loads, the NGCP said. “Specific cities or municipalities still with power interruptions may contact their distribution utilities and electric cooperatives for details of restoration in their areas.”
Marcos stressed that “accountability lies with the NGCP. They are tasked with grid stability. Stability involves proactive responses to breakdowns and unexpected events, a duty that NGCP unfortunately has not fulfilled adequately.”
“NGCP’s failure to act during the crucial two-hour window is a missed opportunity. As the systems operator, NGCP must proactively engage with distribution utilities and cooperatives to manage loads and prevent such system collapses,” he said.
He said this is the second time that Panay Island experienced a prolonged power interruption in less than a year, the first was in April 2023.
The Department of Energy committed Friday to hold the NGCP accountable for lapses in the delivery of its services, particularly on the prolonged power interruption that affected Panay Island.
“As the Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (IEMOP) has pointed out, there was a two-hour window when the NGCP could have proactively called on the distribution utilities and electric cooperatives in Panay to reduce their load in order to prevent an island-wide sub-system-wide collapse,” Energy Secretary Raphael Lotilla said, adding the incident could have been prevented had the NGCP made a proactive move.
“From the time that a generator had an unscheduled breakdown past noon of Jan. 2, NGCP did not do anything as the systems operator responsible for maintaining the stability and integrity of the transmission grid for the next two hours,” Lotilla said.
The loss of supply covering more than 15 percent of the power generated from Panay Island should have alerted NGCP to call for manual load reduction. The previous incident in April 2023 should have served as a lesson to take extraordinary precautions due to the fragility of the grid, he added in a Presidential Communications Office report.
But the NGCP said, in a statement, that as the transmission service provider, it can only give an overview of the current supply and demand situation and endeavor to dispatch any and all available power, but cannot intervene on matters concerning power generation.
“We reiterate our earlier pronouncements that there was no transmission disturbance before the tripping of the PEDC Unit 1 (83MW) at 12:06 p.m. Jan. 2, as NGCP was able to recover the transmission system and normalize voltage. This normal voltage situation persisted until several power plants inexplicably tripped at 2:19 p.m. Data from our system shows no abnormality in voltage and system stability,” it added.
It lamented that critics persist on blaming it “for what are clearly problems arising from the unplanned shutdowns of power generators.”
“It is alarming to hear policymakers immediately make conclusions based on assumptions contrary to fact. We are firm in our position that the system prior to the multiple tripping was normal, and our actions were undertaken within protocols. Any contrary statement is speculative.
“We firmly refute allegations suggesting that NGCP failed in its obligation to stabilize the transmission system. Rather than using NGCP as a scapegoat, we urge policymakers to be objective in their search for facts and not coddle certain sectors. This is not a time to push personal or political agendas, but a time for honest-to-goodness solution finding. We again iterate our push for a comprehensive industry-wide approach to resolve the persistent power supply issues on Panay Island and elsewhere in the country,” it added. | CGC