MANILA, Philippines—Malacañang on Sunday called for greater cooperation among stakeholders in light of last week’s Mindanao-wide power outage and the rotating brownouts that came afterward.
“Now is not the time for blaming others,” Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma said in Filipino over Radyo ng Bayan.
“What is needed is cooperation so we can identify solutions.”
The Palace assured the public the Department of Energy (DOE) was “doing everything that’s needed to address the current power situation in Mindanao.”
Also on board are other government agencies concerned, including the National Power Corp., he said.
Electricity in Mindanao was restored on Friday, 32 hours after a massive power interruption hit the large island.
The blackout was initially attributed to “the tripping [that] emanated from the breaker of the Agus 1 switchyard,” said a DOE statement on Friday.
The breaker or switchyard of a power plant is the facility that links the power plant to the transmission network.
In a separate statement, the DOE said it remained committed to “strengthening coordination, monitoring and even upgrading the power systems, not only in Mindanao but in the entire country to avoid such incidents from happening again.”
Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla said last week that a thorough technical investigation was being undertaken to determine the blackout’s root cause and to be able to take immediate action to prevent a similar incident in the future.
Last week in Kuala Lumpur, President Aquino cited the need to upgrade the Mindanao grid.
Very expensive
“But it is very, very expensive and right now the priority is really to complete the establishment of various facilities after [Super Typhoon] Yolanda (Haiyan),” he told reporters on the sidelines of his state visit to Malaysia.
Asked if the government could ensure a stable power supply for the entire country during the coming summer, he made the assurance only for Luzon and the Visayas.
“Well, for the entire country, Luzon, the Visayas only. I don’t think there’s an issue [there],” he said.
For Mindanao, he said, the expected El Niño phenomenon would have an impact on hydropower plants, noting that such facilities provide “a very substantial portion of the power for Mindanao.”
Hydropower plants are dependent on the high water levels of rivers, which power their turbines.
The Manila Electric Co. (Meralco), the country’s biggest power distributor, has warned that power outages may ensue should it be prevented from collecting from its 5.3 million customers a P4.15 per kilowatt-hour rate increase to recover P9.6 billion in power generation costs last November.
Acting on petitions, the Supreme Court has extended its earlier 60-day temporary restraining order on Maralco’s rate increase for another 60 days or until April.
The record increase in Meralco’s generation charge, which was approved in December by the Energy Regulatory Commission, stemmed from the simultaneous shutdowns of power plants in Luzon.
Aquino said that base-load plants would go “online” only starting next year, “especially for Mindanao.”
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