Erring power companies to get penalty

The Energy Department will issue rules in June penalizing power companies found to have caused a forced outage in the power grid, especially through negligence.

“We already have the draft. We will hold public consultations and the target is to sign by June,” Energy Undersecretary Felix William Fuentebella said.

Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi stressed the need to undergo public consultations to ensure all concerns of the power sector were heard and addressed.

“So everything will become clear and they won’t say that we just make the policy,” he said.

Fuentebella earlier said the department would investigate the reason for the forced outage of power plants and determine their culpability, whether the shutdown was intentional or due to negligence.