The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) said Wednesday it imposed around P60 million in penalties against generation companies (gencos) for alleged violation of the Reliability Index.
It said it was closely watching energy security and issued 65 notices of non-compliance with order to explain (NNCOE) on Dec. 29, 2023 against various gencos nationwide with facilities/units that exceeded the allowable number of unplanned outages.
The regulator said that if the generation companies served with NNCOEs were to be found non-compliant, it would also impose appropriate sanctions and penalties against them in accordance with the rules.
“The ERC’s performance of its mandate aligns with the recent call of government leaders, policymakers and various sectors to ensure accountability among power industry stakeholders for the steady power supply and, in particular, prevention of service interruptions, such as the recent four-day outage in Panay Island,” the agency said.
It set the maximum days of planned and unplanned outages per year and per generating plant technology under ERC Resolution No. 10 series of 2020 which adopted the interim reliability performance indices and equivalent outage days per year of generating units.
The ERC said the resolution was pursuant to the Philippine Grid Code that requires a system of recording and reporting of grid reliability determined through a set of indicators.
Gencos are required to submit an event report to the ERC for planned and unplanned outages of generating facilities/units within 48 hours from the occurrence of the event.
They are also required to submit a weekly summary report to the ERC every Tuesday of the following week declaring outage events of their facilities.
ERC chairperson Monalisa Dimalanta recently renewed the call to amend Republic Act No. 9136, or the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) of 2001, to allow the application of penalties imposed on erring power firms as refunds to consumers inconvenienced by the power outages.
