Local government units will demand payment from those responsible for the power outage that hit the islands of Panay and Guimaras, they said Wednesday during a Senate energy committee hearing.
Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Trenas told the panel his city incurred huge economic losses during the four-day brownout from Jan. 2.
Iloilo Gov. Arthur Defensor also said classes were suspended, Iloilo City Hall’s delivery of basic services was interrupted, and businesses were adversely affected, as they are preparing legal recourse to exact damages amounting to P3.8 billion from those responsible.
He also called on the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines and all concerned to perfect their management of the power grid and put an end to the Cebu-Negros-Panay blackout.
Guimaras Gov. Joaquin Carlos Roman Nava also sought to resolve the power crisis, which he noted has been happening on several occasions.
Meanwhile, the Department of Energy said the Panay-wide power outage will likely happen again unless corrective measures are put in place and much-needed transmission projects are completed.
“It will happen again unless we finish all the projects on time and all the corrective measures are done as presented,” DOE Undersecretary Sharon Garin said during the Senate hearing.
DOE Undersecretary Rowena Guevara added the next three months would be crucial for the Panay Grid as “we wait for CNP 3 [Cebu-Negros-Panay] to be finished because it [outages] can happen again.”
She said the department is looking at adjusting the low supply and demand margins for Panay under the Grid Operation and Maintenance Program and talking to the power generators to move their maintenance period.
Senate energy committee chairperson Senator Raffy Tulfo demanded those involved “to make a real solution” to the power grid’s integrity and stability to avoid further brownouts.
He urged all concerned government agencies and the power sector to avoid finger-pointing and find a solution to the crippling power outage on Panay Island.
Senator Francis Escudero noted that in the industry of providing electricity, the three major players are the power plant, the NGCP, and distribution utilities.
Other players include the Department of Energy, the Energy Regulatory Commission, and the Independent Electric Market Operator of the Philippines which must ensure “that everybody is doing their job,” Escudero said, noting it is easy to blame the NGCP being the biggest player.
But based on Escudero’s studies of the technical report of the brownout from Jan. 2 until Jan. 5, when the PEDC 1 bogged down at 12:09 a.m. on Jan. 2, the frequency and voltage of the national grid code (NGC) was still there.
The senator thus cited the need to look into what triggered the shutdown, as there might be a need to adjust the range or check on the breakers in the plant.
But the NGCP reiterated that it simply followed protocols set by the ERC in responding to the multiple plant shutdowns in Panay that led to the Panay subgrid blackout last Jan. 2.