Zubiri seeks ‘ultimatum’ for NGCP’s unfinished projects

Senate President Juan Miguel “Migz” F. Zubiri (File photo from the Senate Public Relations and Information Bureau)

MANILA, Philippines — Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri on Monday said that the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) should be given an “ultimatum” to finish its transmission programs to fully interconnect Luzon, the Visayas, and Mindanao to avoid a repeat of the massive power outages that plunged Panay, Guimaras islands and parts of Negros Occidental into darkness for almost four days earlier this month.

“The NGCP should make up for what happened. They have to invest, reinvest in the company,” Zubiri said in a press briefing.

“It should already finish the interconnection between Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao, no excuses. There should be an ultimatum on the date when they will interconnect the Luzon-Visayas-Mindanao grids so that the surplus power of Luzon and Mindanao can be used in the Visayas whenever [power generation companies] conduct system checks or system maintenance,” he added.

Zubiri noted the amount of time it has been taking for NGCP to complete the project.

“I remember they said they would complete it by April 2019, then later on April 2020. Their excuse was because of the pandemic, they could not move. After that, they said April 2022. But it’s almost April 2024, what now? They should finish that already,” he said.

Unified national grid

In his State of the Nation Address (Sona) last year, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said the country already has a “unified national grid,” with the interconnection of the ones in Luzon, the Visayas, and Mindanao, thus enabling more efficient transfers and more competitive pricing of electricity throughout the country.

“We have 1,200 megawatts of surplus power in Mindanao. That means we can export that to Panay to address the power outage. But if the transmission grid, the national grid is not ready, we cannot do anything,” Zubiri lamented.

“I think we should look at the totality … why [the outage] was not prevented and also the interconnection of grids. Because it does not make sense [for us to] have a surplus in Mindanao but we can’t deliver it to Panay. Whose fault was that? Transmission, because that [involves] transmission lines … between grids,” he explained.

NGCP has been mainly blamed for the latest massive power outages from Jan. 2 to Jan. 5 that affected 4.5 million people and reportedly cost an estimated P3.7 billion in economic losses for the supposed failure to follow protocols to stabilize and strengthen the Panay grid, even after a similar incident occurred in the region in April last year.

Sen. Francis Escudero, however, earlier pointed out that instead of pinning the blame on just one entity, his fellow lawmakers and state regulators should closely examine the role of all those involved in the energy industry to better pinpoint accountability.

Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel III also said he would rather hear first the explanation of all concerned parties before making any conclusion on NCGP’s culpability.

Zubiri said somebody should be made accountable for the incident, adding that President Marcos was also upset about the incident.

‘Mismanagement’

“The president was very angry because of that. Somebody should be punished, either the gencos (generation companies) or the transmission corporation or both because this is the second time it happened in Panay. We can probably let it pass the first time it happened, just give a warning. But the second time it happened, it’s already mismanagement,” he added. Zubiri stressed that he was in favor of proposals for the imposition of stiffer fines and penalties on both gencos and transmission corporations.

The Senate leader shared that the situation was no longer tolerable and urged the Department of Energy (DOE) and NGCP to urgently address the issue.

“The DOE and the NGCP must understand the gravity of this situation and act decisively to resolve the situation. They should get their acts together immediately. We demand transparency in identifying the root causes of these outages and a comprehensive plan of action to resolve them,” Zubiri said in an earlier statement.