The Energy Department is set to release a circular that will charge power generators when their plants go on forced outage, an official said Wednesday.
“We will come out with a causer’s pay policy program on charging the cost of electricity to the generator that went on forced outage,” Energy Undersecretary Felix William Fuentebella said at the sidelines of the 5th Annual Philippines Power & Electricity Week Forum.
Fuentebella said the department would investigate the reason for the forced outage of the power plants and determine their culpability, whether the shutdown was intentional or due to negligence.
“Usually, we have to visit them and try to see why, what caused the plant shutdown. So, from there we determine… if intentional or negligence. Basically, it’s addressing that level of responsibility to the entire system and more of the accountability portion,” the official said.
Fuentebella said the costs incurred during forced outages of power plants are usually passed on to consumers.
“We just want to look… at your responsibility also because you were the one who said that you will be running at this time and then something happens… You have to make sure everybody is working to make sure that the plant is running,” he said.
Fuentebella said the department would issue the policy in coordination with the Energy Regulatory Commission, including the imposition of penalties.
“It’s a policy that we will look into with the ERC and we will have it tested with the players what will be the effect to them,” he said.
“The one that will pay is the one that caused the problem. Instead of charging to all of us, the only one who caused the problem will shoulder the cost,” Fuentebella said.
He added a company found liable for the forced shutdown might have to compensate participants to the interruptible load program who will be called to run their generator sets, instead of drawing power from the grid.
Consumers of the affected distribution utility pay for running the ILP under the approved rules of the ERC.
Fuentebella said not only generation firms but also government-owned or government-controlled plants could be held liable. The same could apply to the transmission operator.
He said a power plant or transmission shutdown caused by force majeure, or acts of God, will not be charged under the policy.
Fuentebella said the move would also ensure that power plants improve their reliability as most of the large facilities today are aging.
The department recently issued department circular 2017-05-008 providing for the policies and guidelines on the conduct of performance assessment and audit for all power generation, transmission and distribution systems and facilities.