BLACKOUT. Residents of Iloilo City’s coastal barangay of Calaparan stay along the coastlines while waiting for power to be restored on Jan. 5, 2024. The House of Representatives Committee on Energy on Thursday (Jan. 11, 2024) started its second hearing on the power outage that struck Western Visayas. (Photo courtesy of Iloilo City Mayor’s office)
MANILA – The House of Representatives’ Committee on Energy on Thursday held its second hearing on the power outage that struck Western Visayas first on April 27, 28 and 29 last year, and again on January 2, 3 and 4, barely a day after the New Year celebrations.
Committee chairperson Marinduque Rep. Lord Allan Jay Q. Velasco said the hearing is being conducted to investigate and hear from the stakeholders and concerned agencies their explanations why they failed to prevent the massive power outage or immediately resolve it.
“We are committed to form policies that would provide safe, secure, reliable, and sufficient power to all our electricity consumers in the countryside, and that we advocate for a more diverse and stable sources of power to protect our economy, our industries, and most especially, our household electricity consumers,” he said.
“It is necessary to discuss and study the root cause of the problem so that both short-term and long-term solutions will be crafted and implemented,” he added.
Meanwhile, Iloilo City Rep. Julienne Baronda expressed her fear that “the power outage of this magnitude taking place for the second time in less than a year is a portent of things to come.”
“As a result of the region-wide blackout’s disruption to our lives and the economy, the Ilonggo people would like to know who is or are accountable, and more importantly, what fines or penalties can be imposed against these individuals or entities for their inefficiency or malfeasance or nonfeasance,” she said.
During the hearing, National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) president Anthony Almeda maintained that the company handled its system in compliance with the rules.
“We adhere to the data and protocols explicitly outlined in our Philippine Grid Code. It is important to emphasize that we handled the system in compliance with the rules and using resources at our disposal during that period," he said.
He also reiterated the call of NGCP for the inclusion of generation planning and resource assessment in formulating the country’s energy development roadmap.
“We support the green energy initiative of the government, but we ask that green baseload technologies like Baseload Nuclear be explored. We want to be part of the solution, but NGCP cannot do it alone," Almeda said.
He also sought the cooperation of energy stakeholders and the entire government “to ensure the stability of transmission services that will support the reliable power supply for Filipinos.”
NGCP officials likewise committed to submit the details as to why the advisories to the Department of Energy (DOE) and Energy Regulation Commission (ERC) were cut off during the tripping of power plants in Western Visayas.
This was after Deputy Majority Leader and Iloilo 3rd District Rep. Lorenz Defensor raised a query on why the NGCP failed to issue an advisory from 10:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. on January 2, when the power plants tripped that caused the island-wide blackout in Panay.
The Panay Energy Development Corporation (PEDC) Unit 1 shut down at 12:06 p.m. The other plants followed at around 2:19 p.m.
Following the April power outage, it was agreed during the previous hearing that the NGCP would provide advisories at every given time. However, they failed to do it on January 2 during the said critical hours.
Clark Agustin, NGCP Visayas Operations System Head, said they would find out why it happened, though he claimed that they sent messages through SMS when the power plants tripped.
Defensor also expressed dismay upon learning that no one has been penalized by the concerned government agencies for the two similar incidents of power shortage in Western Visayas.
"I can't believe that for a period of almost a year, wala tayong resolution (we have not had any resolution) from the government agencies that are supposed to oversee the energy industry,” he said, adding that he expects to see in the final committee report that someone should be made to answer for the supposed liabilities incurred by Western Visayas, particularly, by Iloilo.
Present during the hearing were local government officials of the region who narrated their experiences during the latest incident, including its serious impacts in their respective business sectors.
Iloilo Governor Arthur Defensor stressed that someone should be held responsible for the incident, but believed it’s more important to find a long-term solution to the problem.
He also reiterated his call for the establishment of the Cebu-Panay backbone project, which he said could prevent the repetition of similar power outages in the Visayas.
Stiffer penalty sought
Senator Win Gatchalian wants stiffer penalties imposed against industry players found guilty of mismanaging power-related issues that resulted in economic losses.
“I propose that, as part of our legislative output, we peg the penalty commensurate with the economic losses experienced by affected areas due to negligence and incompetence,” Gatchalian said in a recent Senate Committee on Energy hearing on the power outage in Western Visayas.
“It’s not worth their while,” he added, referring to the maximum penalty of PHP50 million that the ERC imposes for any violation of the country’s grid code.
He said the NGCP will take issues seriously if stiffer penalties are imposed for violations. He noted that combined economic losses from the power outage incurred by both Iloilo province and Iloilo City have reportedly reached PHP5.7 billion.
“Clearly, it wasn’t in a normal state anymore because there was already a deficiency in power supply when a power plant went down at past 12 noon on January 2. The demand went up, creating an imbalance in the grid. When you have a negative margin, that will definitely disrupt the grid,” he said.
Business leaders urge ERC, DOE to lead probe
Meanwhile, the Federation of Philippine Industries (FPI) on Friday urged the ERC and the DOE to conduct a “thorough and speedy” investigation into the events that led to a three-day power outage in the islands of Panay, Guimaras, and parts of Negros Occidental in the first week of January.
In an interview FPI chairperson Jesus Arranza noted that the two agencies are lawfully mandated to spearhead such an investigation, and they have the technical resources to get to the bottom of the power outage that briefly crippled business operations in the affected provinces.
“I admire the senators’ quick action on the blackout. Their ongoing investigation will certainly aid in crafting legislation that would help avoid a repeat of the incident. Now, the ERC and DOE should take their cue from the Senate and take the lead in the investigation,” he told the Philippine News Agency.
The business leader emphasized that a thorough investigation by the competent agencies will ensure that any future sanctions that “may or may not be imposed on the NGCP are motivated only by raw facts.”
Arranza said the widespread power outage in Western Visayas on Jan. 2 to 5 has likely affected the operations of FPI affiliate companies in the region, and a recurrence of this event should be “avoided at all cost” to sustain the growing investor confidence in the Philippine economy.
Philippine Exporters Confederation (PhilExport) and concurrent Employers’ Confederation of the Philippines (ECOP) president Sergio Ortiz-Luis Jr. echoed Arranza’s call, saying the result of the investigation of the ERC and DOE will serve as basis for recommendations to the executive and legislative branches.
“Of course, this is cause for concern, because a three-day (power) outage has significant economic impact. It is understandable why people are angry, but we really need an objective probe on this matter, and the outcome (of the investigation) cannot be perceived as having any other agenda,” he said.
Ortiz-Luis, however, emphasized that his membership remains confident of the Marcos administration’s capacity to determine and address the root causes of the power outage, and take the necessary steps to avoid its repeat. (with reports from Leonel Abasola and Miguel Gil/PNA)
