President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Friday blasted the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) for its failure to act following the island-wide blackout that covered the Western Visayas since Jan. 2.
“The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines, NGCP, had a crucial two-hour window to prevent the system collapse, as highlighted by the Independent Market Electricity Operator of the Philippines or IMEOP. Regrettably, during this period, NGCP failed to resort to manual load dropping, resulting in the crisis that we are facing now,” President Marcos said in a video message.
“NGCP’s failure to act during the crucial two-hour window is a missed opportunity. As the systems operator, NGCP must proactively engage with distribution utilities and cooperatives to manage loads and prevent such system collapses,” he added.
The President also instructed ERC to review the rate reset of NGCP to ensure its continued compliance with its statutory and regulatory obligations.
“I have also directed the ERC to complete the reset of NGCP’s rates without further delay, to ensure NGCP’s compliance with its statutory and regulatory obligations, and to defend in no uncertain terms against any attempt to defer, delay, or prevent the implementation of regulatory measures,” President Marcos said in a video message.
The President pledged the government’s dedication to resolving the situation and preventing similar incidents in the future.
According to the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), power has been restored.
The President acknowledged this but expressed concern about the significant impact of the power outage on residents, businesses, livelihoods, and health care in the region.
This marks the second prolonged power interruption in Panay Island in less than a year.
President Marcos ordered NGCP to be transparent with stakeholders, utilities, and regulators, acknowledging its responsibility and openly identifying weaknesses in transmission systems.
“Accountability lies with the NGCP. They are tasked with grid stability. Stability involves proactive responses to breakdowns and unexpected events, a duty that NGCP unfortunately has not fulfilled adequately,” President Marcos said.
He also recalled NGCP’s commitment to completing the Mindanao-Visayas and Panay-Negros-Cebu interconnections last year, a project that remains pending.
The House of Representatives committee on energy is set to conduct on Jan. 11 (Thursday) an investigation into the power outages that sent the entire Panay Island and portions of Negros Island into darkness since Wednesday.
Deputy Majority Leader and Iloilo City Julienne Baronda confirmed the hearing schedule on her social media page.
Baronda said her fellow Ilonggo legislators, namely Rep. Raul Tupas of Iloilo, Michael Gorriceta of Iloilo, Francisco Benitez of Negros Occidental, Lorenz Defensor of Iloilo, James Ang, Jr of USWAG Ilonggo party-list group; Dan Fernandez of Laguna, Arlene Brosas of Gabriela, and France Castro of ACT Teachers, supported the call the congressional inquiry in aid of legislation.
Baronda said the blackout was unacceptable and that certain individuals have to be held responsible and accountable for it.
Baronda and several lawmakers emphasized the severe impact of the blackout on lives and economic activities in the area.
Areas such as Guimaras Island, Iloilo, Antique, Aklan, and Capiz were among those affected by the power outage, adversely impacting the livelihoods of residents, particularly small business owners.
The NGCP earlier reported that on Jan. 2 that power plants on Panay Island tripped, leading to a significant power outage.
The Department of Energy (DOE) committed on Friday to hold the NGCP accountable for its lapses in delivering its services.
The NGCP reported on Friday that at 12:34 p.m.,it fully restored all affected feeders in Panay Island and normalized transmission operations in the area following the synchronization of the remaining generating unit, Palm Concepcion Power Corp.’s 135MW coal plant to the grid at 1:33 a.m.
“We are hoping that since supply has been declared stable plus the grid system has no service interruption, there won’t be manual load dropping and hopefully that can be sustained by the system operator,” DOE Assistant Secretary Mario Marasigan said when asked about the power outlook for Panay.
Iloilo City alone suffered losses of about P500 million per day due to the shutdown.
Energy Secretary Raphael Lotilla said the incident could have been prevented had the NGCP taken a proactive move.
Lotilla cited the report of the IEMOP, operator of the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market, that there was a two-hour window when the NGCP could have called on the distribution utilities and electric cooperatives in Panay to reduce their load to prevent an island-wide sub-system-wide collapse.
“The loss of supply covering more than 15 percent of the power generated from Panay Island should have alerted NGCP to call for manual load reduction. The previous incident in April 2023, last year, should have served as a lesson to take extraordinary precautions due to the fragility of the grid,” he said.
NGCP, however, denied that it had failed in its obligation to stabilize the transmission system. It said there was no transmission disturbance before the tripping of Panay Energy Development Corp.’s Unit 1 (83MW) at 12:06 p.m. of Jan. 2.
NGCP said after this event, it was able to recover the transmission system and normalize voltage. This normal voltage situation persisted until several power plants inexplicably tripped at 2:19 p.m.
It said data from its system showed no abnormality in voltage and system stability.
Despite this, NGCP said critics persist in blaming the company for problems arising from the unplanned shutdowns of power generators.
“It is alarming to hear policymakers immediately make conclusions based on assumptions contrary to fact. We are firm in our position that the system prior to the 2:19 p.m. multiple tripping was normal, and our actions were undertaken within protocols. Any contrary statement is speculative,” it said.
“Rather than using NGCP as a scapegoat, we urge policymakers to be objective in their search for facts and not coddle certain sectors. This is not a time to push personal or political agendas, but a time for honest-to-goodness solution finding. We again reiterate our push for a comprehensive industry-wide approach to resolve the persistent power supply issues on Panay Island and elsewhere in the country,” NGCP said.
Lotilla said that together with the Energy Regulatory Commission, DOE “will get to the root cause of the tripping of the six power plants, and conduct a technical analysis of the Panay grid in order that necessary grid enhancements are carried out.”
“The DOE will review the scheduled plant maintenance shutdown of all plants to widen the margin for regulation and contingency,” he said.
The energy chief said DOE would also continue to assist and facilitate the completion of long-delayed and new transmission projects.
“We will exert all efforts to exact full accountability for any failures in the delivery of the services expected from NGCP as the transmission concessionaire and the country’s biggest monopoly in the energy sector,” he said.
He said the DOE will also continue to work with NGCP to ensure the completion of project including the Panay-Negros-Cebu backbone project whose completion has been moved six times to March 2024 from the original target date of December 2020.
Lotilla said DOE will also give full support to the Energy Regulatory Commission in completing the reset of NGCP’s rates, ensuring NGCP’s compliance with its legal obligations and resisting any attempt to delay or obstruct the implementation of regulatory measures.
He said DOE supports and welcomes the call made by legislative leaders and Panay local officials for a congressional inquiry into this latest incident with a view to revisit and review the franchise of NGCP to ensure the timely expansion of the transmission system.
In other developments:
* Speaker Ferdinand Martin G. Romualdez proposed that the Maharlika Investment Corp. (MIC) consider investing its resources on power grid operator NGCP. “This strategic investment could provide essential capital for infrastructure upgrades and help in lowering the cost of electricity for consumers,” Romualdez said.
* Senator Imee Marcos joined three other senators in calling for an investigation into the widespread power outages in Western Visayas. “I’m filing a resolution to investigate the cause of the power outage in Panay Island, given that blackouts are not supposed to be happening during this time of the year,” Senator Marcos said. “If this is the status of our power grid in January, what havoc shall we expect during peak demand season in the coming summer months?”