ERC to penalize errant power firms amid Luzon brownouts

MANILA, Philippines – The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) on Thursday assured that power generation companies that violated their contracts in terms of power outages will be penalized amid the recent brownouts in Luzon.

ERC Commissioner Catherine Maceda explained that generation firms have an allowance for power outages in their contracts.

If the outages, however, exceed what is stipulated in the contracts, penalties must be imposed.

“May kasunduan po ang mga gencos at mga distribution utilities kung hanggang saan ang outage allowance… we need to be respectful of the contracts entered into by the parties,” Maceda said during the joint congressional power commission hearing.

“What we are looking at is beyond the outage allowance, ano ang sinasabi ng kontrata. Ang mananagot ba nyan ay ang consumer o hindi?” Maceda added.

Maceda said penalties will be imposed on gencos, including those who failed to submit outage reports, following due process.

“Yung mga hindi nagco-comply ipe-penalize na po after due process. If the question is will there be penalties, there will be penalties after due course,” Maceda said.

Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Alfonso Cusi backed the move to penalize erring gencos. /gsg