Gatchalian: Power generation firms liable over outages that prompted red, yellow alerts

Power generation companies are liable over unscheduled outages last week that resulted in unforeseen red and yellow alert incidents, Senator Sherwin Gatchalian said.

Gatchalian, vice chairman of the Senate energy panel, was referring to the red and yellow alerts in Luzon and Visayas grids last week wherein power lost due to forced power plant outages reached 1,811 megawatts or more than double the four-year average of 700 megawatts. 

“This is on the gencos (generation companies) because we have to remember that they should have reliability. Their power plants should not suddenly go on outage. They should be able to anticipate their needs, and there are power plants that did not have crude oil, and that failed to anticipate,” Gatchalian said in a press conference.

”May accountability sila na i-maintain ang planta nila. Maraming issue na pwedeng iwasan na hindi naiwasan. Bakit nagkaganun? ‘Yun ang gusto namin marinig sa DOE (Department of Energy) at dapat masagot,” he added.

(They have accountability to maintain their plants. A lot of these issues could have been prevented and yet they happened. We need to hear answers, particularly from the DOE.)

Gatchalian said he will file a resolution seeking Senate probe on the matter.

“I will file a resolution so this matter can be investigated thoroughly. I am looking at ancillary reserves. What is the penalty if the [power plants’] ancillary reserve does not reach 100%? In this case, even hydrogen power plants suffered outages,” he said.

“I call on the ERC (Energy Regulatory Commission) to look at these power generation companies’ reliability index for accountability. If there are non-compliant entities, they should pay fines. Without these interventions, we will suffer from rotating brownouts due to higher temperatures and increased power demand,” he added.

Gatchalian, however, said the recent red and yellow alert incidents are no reason for the government to tap nuclear energy as a power source.

“We are not ready for that. We don’t even have a regulator for that, we don’t have treaties in place [for such policy], and we don’t have a waste disposal system for that and we don’t have a working nuclear plant,” he said.

Earlier, Senator Francis "Chiz" Escudero also said the DOE and ERC must enforce stricter oversight on power generation companies (gencos) to ensure compliance with their scheduled outages, and that  generation companies should be compelled to provide transparent explanations and justifications for any unplanned outages.

"The DOE and ERC should rein in the gencos to stay true to their scheduled outages and should be required to explain and justify the reasons behind these forced outages," Escudero said in a statement. 

"They should be held accountable for any unreasonable or unjustified outage brought about by their negligence, incompetence or their own fault," he added.—AOL, GMA Integrated News