Congress eyes inquiry on power transmission disturbances, outages

Lawmakers on Monday called for a congressional inquiry on the series of power transmission disturbances that hit parts of the country, saying such incidents caused inconvenience to communities and loss of income to businesses. 

This comes after an incident on May 8, 2023, resulted in rotational blackouts after the Luzon Grid was placed under red and yellow alerts by the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) due to the tripping of the Bolo-Masinloc 230 kilovolt (kV) Line 2.

The said alerts also affected the transfer of  generated supply from the Luzon Grid to the Visayas Grid, resulting in the Visayas Grid also being placed under yellow alert.

On May 9, the Manila Electric Company (Meralco) also reported power supply cuts due to a "temporary system imbalance".

“These successive transmission system disturbances caused inconvenience to communities and losses to businesses. The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines as the operator of the transmission system in the country should be held to account for the root cause of these disturbances,” said Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, vice chair of the Senate energy panel in a statement.

Prior to these May incidents, Gatchalian also noted that NGCP also reported  a system disturbance in the Visayas grid on April 27, causing a loss of 322.3 megawatts (MW) and power interruptions that persisted until April 30 in the islands of Panay, Guimaras, and Negros, affecting over 1.5 million households.

“NGCP is mandated under Section 3 of Republic Act No.9511 to operate and maintain the transmission system, grid, and related facilities at all times in accordance with industry standards," added Gatchalian.

At the Lower House, Deputy Minority Leader France Castro of ACT Teachers party-list, House Assistant Minority Leader Arlene Brosas of Gabriela party-list and Kabataan party-list representative Raoul Manuel made a similar call for a probe. 

“While the private companies earn billions of profit, the Filipino people are suffering from high cost of electricity rates, and  rotational and unplanned power outages. If not ultimately repealed, it is high time for  Congress to, at the very least, review and introduce amendments to EPIRA (Electric Power Industry Reform Act),” the Makabayan lawmakers’ resolution read.

“Now, therefore, be it resolved, that the House of Representatives through its  Committee on Energy, investigate, in aid of legislation, the issuance of red and yellow alerts  by the NGCP for the Luzon and Visayas Grids due to forced outages of five electric power plants and the derated capacity of three others,” their resolution added.

Senator Grace Poe, who serves as chair of the Senate public services panel, also said her committee is open to the review of the congressional franchise of the NGCP as it concerns a critical need of Filipinos.

"The recurring power outages being experienced by millions of households amid the scorching months should not be the norm. We must also exercise vigilance when it comes to our power lines, to ensure that electricity running from Luzon to Mindanao remains under the control of Filipinos amid security concerns raised by senators," said Poe in a separate statement.

"The committee will thoroughly scrutinize the performance of the NGCP and see if it has remained faithful to its signed franchise or if violations have been committed," she added.

GMA News Online has sought the comment of NGCP, but it has yet to reply as of posting time. 

The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) on Friday expressed its willingness to undergo a performance audit after Energy Secretary Raphael Lotilla raised the idea following the recent transmission system issues. —VAL, GMA Integrated News