"Rotating brownouts have no place in an expanding economy."
The rotating brownouts in the Luzon grid reflect the state of major power plants on the main island—many of them are aging and require frequent maintenance shutdowns to keep them in running condition.
The number of power plants operating in the grid may be enough to meet the current electricity demand but the reserves could be thin when an unscheduled shutdown of one major generation station occurs. In the current case, power outages occured because more than one generation plant conked out amid the usual high demand during the peak of the dry season.
Per the report of Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi, four power plants with a combined output of 1,372 megawatts were still offline. Fortunately, the supply normalized to meet the demand in Luzon.
The preventive maintenance shutdown of some power plants, meanwhile, have been prolonged due to COVID-19 restrictions. Lockdown rules and the impaired mobility of workers have delayed works on power plants undergoing maintenance repair. Power companies also found it difficult to bring in technical experts from abroad to check on plants undergoing repair because of quarantine rules.
The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines, for instance, has sought government help to facilitate the shipment of essential transmission equipment to the country to complete critical transmission projects. It also asked for support on the entry of foreign consultants and the rationalization of quarantine restrictions for critical personnel to avoid delays.
Many of the power plants in the Luzon grid have been operating for 40 years and the government and the private sector have been unable to replace them and build new ones to keep up with economic growth. The Calaca coal-fired power plants in Batangas and Zambales provinces are now outdated, while the hydro facilities in Pantabanga, Nueva Ecija and Magat in Isabela were built in the 70s and 80s.
The government perhaps should sweeten the incentives on power generators and ease the restrictions on foreign personnel to attract more investors to participate in the industry. The power sector remains a critical component of the economy. Rotating brownouts have no place in an expanding economy.