Senate energy panel to probe power supply shortage in Luzon

BIGGEST FEAR IS NOW A REALITY: Sen. Win Gatchalian, chairman of the Committee on Energy, expresses concern over the potential power outages in light of the vaccination rollout. Gatchalian said 339,000 households, 90 barangays, and 16 municipalities and cities experienced electricity outage on Tuesday, June 1, 2021. (Albert Calvelo/Senate PRIB)

MANILA, Philippines — The Senate energy committee will open an investigation into the rotational brownouts that affected some 339,000 households in Luzon earlier this week.

Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, chairman of the Senate energy committee, called for the inquiry through Senate Resolution No. 740 as he stressed the need to hold the Department of Energy (DOE) accountable for its “failure to address power supply shortages since 2016.”

He said the DOE should ensure the quality, reliability, security, and affordability of electric power supply in the country.

“This is a critical situation and I would like to request the Department of Energy to get all hands on deck especially in the next coming days because from the forecast that I am seeing, there will be a problem of load dropping in the next eight days,” Gatchalian said in a statement Thursday.

According to the senator, some 339,000 households from 90 barangays in 16 local government units in Luzon lost their electricity on June 1.

He pointed out that there were even two vaccination centers in Valenzuela City that experienced power interruptions.

Earlier this week, rotational brownouts hit the Luzon grid as the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) placed the area under red alert. Being under red alert means that there are zero ancillary services or insufficient power supply in the grid.

“The DOE even gave assurances during the Energy Committee’s hearing on April 27 that there is no high risk of supply shortage during the summer season, yet some areas in Luzon experienced rotational brownouts on May 31 and June 1 due to red alerts,” Gatchalian said.

Considering that power shortage has been a “recurring” problem in the past five years, the senator stressed it was high time that long-term solutions be finally put in place.

“It is crucial for the DOE to provide long-term solutions to this problem and a specific timeline for these plans, to include the hastening of the build-out of new power plants, aggressively utilizing energy efficiency and conservation, and contracting sufficient ancillary reserves,” he said.

“All these things are necessary to protect the public and the economy from losses due to power outages and the resulting high prices of electricity due to limited power supply,” he added.