Power plants on forced outage risk losing DOE endorsement

Power generation companies that have been on forced outage could lose their Certificate of Endorsement from the Department of Energy (DOE), according to DOE Undersecretary Mario Marasigan.

“Dahil tayo po ay policy body, iyong pagbawi po noong ating tinatawag na Certificate of Endorsement kung saan po, ito po ay puwedeng tugunan at imbestigahan din ng ating Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) na siya pong umaaktong siya mismo ang regulator po natin sa electric power industry,” Marasigan said in an interview on Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon on Friday.

(Because we are a policy body, the withdrawal of what we call the Certificate of Endorsement, which can be addressed and investigated by our Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), which is acting as our regulator in the electric power industry.)

According to Marasigan, the ERC can conduct hearings to determine if there is sufficient evidence showing that the continuous power plant outages are due to the negligence or shortcomings of generating company owners.

The ERC will impose the appropriate sanctions or penalties if necessary, he added.

On Wednesday, Energy Secretary Sharon Garin said they are already looking into possible penalties for power generation firms whose plants have been offline for extended periods, contributing to repeated yellow and red alerts in the Visayas grid since mid-May.

The island group was placed under red alert from 1 p.m. to 7 p.m., followed by a yellow alert from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m on June 10.

“Visayas is problematic. We're quite transparent about this. Now and next year, if we do not do anything, Visayas will still have these red, yellow alerts,” Garin said.

“That’s why we had a meeting with the President last week. He said to find the immediate solution and the long-term solution,” she added.

The DOE is planning to establish new power plants that not only provide electricity but also ancillary services or electricity reserves.

“Sa kasalukuyan po ay mayroon tayong tinatantiya na humigit-kumulang 200 megawatts, ang karamihan po dito ay battery energy storage system na atin pong isinasaayos at dapat po ito ay maitayo natin sa loob ng humigit-kumulang tatlong buwan,” Marasigan said.

(At present, we are estimating approximately 200 megawatts—the majority of which consists of battery energy storage systems—that we are currently fine-tuning, and which should be fully constructed and operational within roughly three months.)

Meanwhile, the DOE is pushing as well for renewable energy. According to Marasigan, the department is monitoring a total of 12,000 megawatts lined up through 2028, emphasizing that these committed power plants must be commissioned on schedule.

Out of the 2,000 megawatts projected to enter the grid this year, roughly 1,400 megawatts are already online as of the first half of the year, Marasigan said. — BAP, GMA News