DOE probes Visayas power plants as grid woes persist

Local

TO ADDRESS persistent power woes in the Visayas, the national government will review the performance of power companies and plants in the region.

If proven to have failed in meeting their obligations, they may potentially lose their licenses, the Department of Energy (DOE) said.

The energy department announced this move as the Visayas grid recorded a string of red and yellow alerts in recent weeks.

During an online news briefing, Energy Secretary Sharon Garin said the government would hold accountable energy firms and generating facilities that fail to deliver the capacity and reliability expected of them.

“Installed capacity on paper is not enough. We need to look at actual performance whether the plants are delivering the capacity and reliability expected of them and meeting their obligations to the power system,” Garin told reporters.

One possible penalty for companies found to be failing to meet their commitments is license revocation, she said.

“When government grants a company the privilege to participate in our sector, we expect that company to deliver on its commitments and comply with the standards and conditions that come with that privilege. Hindi po ’yan regalo. It is a privilege,” Garin said.

The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) has issued five red alerts for the Visayas grid so far in August.

A red alert is raised when available supply and operating reserves are insufficient to meet demand, increasing the risk of power interruptions as grid operators resort to measures such as manual load dropping.

The DOE has attributed the region’s tight power supply partly to the prolonged forced outages of some of its largest coal-fired power plants.

The situation was further strained by reduced power imports from Mindanao and the isolation of Units 1 and 2 of Cebu Energy Development Corp. after transmission lines near Daanbantayan, Cebu, tripped.

To help stabilize the grid, the DOE has directed NGCP to fast-track contracts that would allow the integration of 250 megawatts of battery energy storage systems (BESS) into the Visayas grid.

“Kung wala yung kontrata, hindi siya makakapasok sa grid, and tuloy-tuloy po ang pagsuffer ng mga taga-Visayas and probably Mindanao also,” Energy Undersecretary Mario Marasigan said.

The DOE also plans to prioritize transmission upgrades and new projects, including the Luzon-Visayas and Visayas-Mindanao interconnections, to strengthen the region’s power supply and transmission network.(RBE)