DOE issues show cause order vs. 5 power plants amid red, yellow alerts in Luzon grid

The Department of Energy (DOE) has issued show cause orders against the operators of five power plants that have been under an unplanned shutdown which resulted in thinning reserves prompting the government to raise red and yellow alerts over the Luzon grid.

At a press conference in Quezon City on Thursday, Energy Undersecretary Felix William Fuentebella said the DOE sent out show cause orders against Sual Unit 1,  Southwest Luzon Power Generation Corp. (SLPGC) Unit 2, Pagbilao Unit 3, South Luzon Thremal Energy Corp. (SLTEC) Unit 1 to explain thoroughly why they went on a forced outage.

"Show cause orders are already out," Fuentebella said.

The said plants - which have a total capacity of 1,352 megawatts - have been under unplanned outages in the past couple days, resulting in thin power reserves amid the usual demand surge during the hot dry season.

Meanwhile, Calaca Unit 2 was also prompted to explain why it was not operating at its full capacity of 200 megawatts and only functioning by 100 megawatts.

In the first two weeks of April, a series of yellow alerts were raised over the Luzon grid. Meanwhile, the power grid was placed under red alert status for two straight days on Wednesday and Thursday.

The National Grid Corp. of the Philippines defines red alert as a system condition when there is zero ancillary services or a generation deficiency exists.

On the other hand, yellow alert refers to a condition in which the reserves are less than the capacity of the biggest plant online, which is 647 megawatts for Luzon.

"We want to clarify what's happening with them (power plants)... bakit nasira or bakit delayed ang, nasaan yung explanation? Ano yung mga pieces of evidence, videos, pictures ng... because I'm really trying to collate the information," Fuentebella said.

Possible collusion?

DOE's Electric Power Industry and Management Bureau head Mario Marasigan earlier said the Energy department will look into the possibility of a collusion among power plants following the outages which resulted in the thinning of reserves.

Fuentebella, for his part, said the DOE does not want to be a "fault finder" and will give the power generators a chance to explain their situation.

"But if we really see something na anti-competitive or close to sabotage, ah talagang we will not hesitate... But, of course, we have to be also to be fair," the Energy spokesperson said.

Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, chairman of the Senate Committee on Energy, called on the DOE, as well as the Philippine Competition Commission, to check the possible collusion, noting that the price at the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) has already rose to P8 per kilowatt hour.

Despite the thinning power reserves, Fuentebella assured the public that there is no or even a looming power crisis in the country.

Manila Electric Co.'s Interruptible Load Program (ILP) will be tapped to compensate for the expected deficiency in power reserves in case power plants went on shutdown. — MDM, GMA News