A leftist lawmaker on Tuesday appealed to the House leadership to give priority to a measure he filed in 2017 to investigate the questionable simultaneous shutdowns of numerous power plants—a phenomenon that occurred again this month.
HR 928, filed by Rep. Carlos Zarate in 2017, urged the House committee on energy to conduct an inquiry into the overall situation of power plants in the Luzon grid, considering the spate and overlapping power plant shutdowns at the time that drove electricity rates up.
The measure—which has been pending at the committee level—warned that these massive maintenance shutdowns “would definitely cause immense electricity rate hikes to the detriment of… consumers.”
He said reforms were needed “to protect the consumers from these seemingly collusive and manipulative practices.”
“Since the advent of EPIRA (Electric Power Industry Reform Act), the power oligarchs have been ‘electrocuting’ hapless consumers with the unbridled and non-stop rise in the cost of electricity through collusion and market manipulation. And, for decades, too, our regulators are also held captive by these power players,” the Davao-based lawmaker said.
Last week, Zarate voiced his concern over the continued simultaneous maintenance shutdowns of power plants during the summer season, which ends up hurting power reserves in Luzon at a time when power demand is at its highest.
That same week, system operator National Grid Corporation of the Philippines placed the Luzon grid on red alert status for three straight days to warn consumers, including those in the franchise area of the Manila Electric Company, of rotating brownouts.
“Why is it that they always have to break down at the same time when demand is highest?” Zarate asked. “We really can’t blame the consumers for thinking that the power plants are colluding in order to raise the cost of electricity,” he added.
Zarate said that since 2012, power plants such as the Sual power plant, Calaca power plant, Pagbilao power plant, and Malaya thermal power plant have bogged down annually during summer.
He said that it is high time for Congress to investigate the matter.
“Its the owners of these plants who should be shouldering the additional cost in electricity since it’s their fault that these plants keep bogging down, and not the consumers. That’s why they shouldn’t ask us to pay,” Zarate said.
Meanwhile, a party-list group expressed doubts about the ability of the Department of Energy to ensure there would be no power interruptions during the May 13 midterm elections.
At a news conference in Quezon City, Gerry Rances, Murang Kuryente party-list second nominee, expressed his disappointment over the government’s inability to provide affordable and reliable energy to consumers.
“In the whole of 2017, there were only three yellow alerts for the grid. (Year) 2018 had seven yellow alerts for the whole year. Yet in 2019, an election year, there were 10 yellow alerts and even red alerts and April has not even ended yet,” he said.
“The Palace should intervene. We do not have high confidence that the Energy department could provide us with a no-power supply interruption on May 13,” he said.
The Energy department earlier said there would a continued supply of power during the dry season, but power outages began just a few weeks after that, he said. “So what is different about the DOE now that I can trust their other promises?” he asked.
Last week, the Luzon grid was still short of 1,367 megawatts since five coal power plants—the SMC Consolidated Power Corp., Team Energy Corp., Southwest Luzon Power Generation Corp., and Pagbilao Energy Corp.—were still on forced outage.
Antonio Paredes, the party-list first nominee, said such failures had “cost consumers and the economy dearly.”
“A one-hour blackout in Metro Manila already costs the economy roughly P2.7 billion. And this is just from the stoppage of economic activity that requires electricity and does not include second-order effects,” he said.
Running for reelection, former Senator Juan Ponce Enrile called for the development of nuclear weapons as a counterweight to Chinese power in the South China Sea.
“Those things can be enforced only by force. You can’t go to the [international court] to enforce the edict or decision of any international agency like the arbitration court. In the game of nations, it is always the law of force,” Enrile said in an interview on CNN.
He said the government can better negotiate with China if it builds up its military capabilities.
“We must negotiate. We cannot go to war. Are we willing to lose 10 million people? We can never win,” Enrile said. “If we want to match China, develop your nuclear weapons like North Korea.”
“That is the reality among nations. That’s why we have to build our economy and build our military capabilities,” he continued.
He recalled that during the time of the late President Ferdinand Marcos, there was a plan to develop the Bataan Nuclear Plant not only to develop energy.
“He planned it so we can have nuclear weapon so that we would not be picked on,” Enrile said in a mix of English and Filipino. “If we are to take a stand, what will we use, firecrackers?”