Press Release
September 13, 2022

Hontiveros to DOE Officials: Be More Integrated Than The Grid

Senator Risa Hontiveros on Tuesday urged the Department of Energy to be 'more integrated than the grid' in addressing the red alert status of the Luzon grid that may again cause rotational blackouts in affected service areas.

"Ang pangit tingnan na laging nauuna ang problema kaysa sa solusyon lalo na kung paulit-ulit lang itong nangyayari. Dapat ang ating DOE ay mas mabilis na nakakaalam at nakakagawa ng aksyon sa problemang alam ng mga opisyal at eksperto na darating anumang oras," lamented Hontiveros.

Hontiveros made the statement after the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) announced that the Luzon grid will be placed on red alert status.

"Naglunsad tayo ng mga pagdinig kasama ang buong energy family at players sa industriya noong 2021 at doon ay nagbigay kayo ng assurance na hindi na ito mauulit. Pero bakit nangyayari pa rin ang parehong insidente?" asked Hontiveros.

Hontiveros expressed her dismay that the agency, under the leadership of Sec. Raphael Lotilla, seemed to be unaware of what was really going on in the grid that it failed to specifically identify which plants were into forced shutdown or derating and the reason behind it.

"Yung pitong power plants na nagkaroon ng forced outages ngayon ay nangyari rin noong June 2021 kung saan ilang araw na nakaranas ng rotational blackouts ang ating mga kababayan. Bakit hinayaan pang mangyari ito gayong natukoy na ang actions points para hindi na ito maulit?" she asked.

She furthered that actions on the perennial issues of thinning power supply and high cost of electricity were already identified in the previous hearings in the Senate Committee on Energy and were just waiting to be implemented.

"May mga malilinaw nang action points na tinukoy sa mga nakaraang pagdinig, kaya wala akong nakikitang katanggap-tanggap na dahilan para maulit pa rin ang problema ng pagnipis ng suplay ng kuryente sa bansa," she said.

These action points, she said, were tackled during the past hearings in the Senate Committee of Energy. They includee firm contracts for ancillary services and improvement of lines by the NGCP, proper scheduling of planned maintenance shutdown, and prevention of forced outages through performance reliability index as required by the grid code.

She also recalled that the Energy Regulatory Commission had penalized owners of power plants who went into unplanned shutdowns in 2021, but whether their act was a result of gaming the market is not yet clear to the unsuspecting public.

"Sobrang nakakabahala ang kawalang-solusyon sa problema ng suplay ng kuryente dahil alam nating lahat na bukod sa mga blackouts ay dahilan din ito sa pagtaas ng presyo ng kuryente," said Hontiveros.

The senator likewise urged her fellow policymakers to re-imagine the power industry beyond the current structure created by EPIRA in which the state plays a minimal role and oligopoly prevents decentralization and democratization to flourish through renewable energy and for consumers to become less dependent on the main grid.

"Hence, we challenge Secretary Lotilla and the ERC to be more integrated and more decisive in the power industry where private control of the generation, transmission, distribution, and the supply sectors is highly concentrated. ," Hontiveros concluded.

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