Senators hit ERC over ‘poor maintenance’ of power plants

Several lawmakers on Tuesday questioned the Energy Regulatory Commission’s (ERC) lack of regular inspection of power plants that might have contributed to why there are outages being experienced in some areas.  

During the hearing of the Senate committee on energy, panel chair Senator Raffy Tulfo asked how frequently should the ERC conduct maintenance on the power plants, taking into consideration the plight of Filipinos who suffer from outages due to malfunctioning or old power plants. 

 “Your honor, in terms of maintenance inspection, wala hong regular na maintenance [there’s no regular maintenance],” ERC director Sharon Montaner answered.

“Admittedly, what we do is less monitoring based on the benchmarks,” she added. 

The ERC official said the ideal maintenance check of power plants is at least once a year, but they only do so once every two and a half years. However, she said their monitoring team is also conducting plant inspection when there are prolonged outages. 

Tulfo thus said that the ERC must also be sanctioned when there are power plants that are malfunctioning due to their poor maintenance. 

“Diyan kayo nagka-problema. Kaya pala maraming mga power outages na kapag nag-inquire kami, sinasabi na eh ‘yung planta nag-bog down dahil nasira, dahil may piyesang kailangan palitan at kailangang order-in kung saang lupalop ng mundo,” the lawmaker said. 

(That's where the problem comes from. That's why there are so many power outages. When we inquire, we are told that the power plants have bogged down because it was damaged, or because there is a piece that needs to be replaced and be ordered from other areas.) 

“So, hindi ninyo ginagawa ang trabaho ninyo diyan sa ERC,” he added. 

(You’re not doing your job there in the ERC.) 

Asked of their plan to address this problem, Montaner said the ERC has formed an ad hoc team late last year to monitor the power plants, but pointed out that this team has only covered those in prolonged outages and will still try to expand the inspection for the rest of the plants. 

Senator Chiz Escudero echoed the concern of Tulfo, saying that ERC all the more needs to closely monitor the power plants in the country as there are more unplanned outages than planned ones in the recent weeks. 

“These are all based on the submission of the plant itself. Actually, wala kayong ka-muwang muwang eh (you don’t have any idea). You don’t have eyes, you don’t have ears, you don’t have feet and warm hands on the ground to find out kung ang sinasabi ba talaga nilang rason is totoo o hindi (if the reason they are saying is true or not),” he said. 

“My problem is, you will decide based on their submission and their submission alone kung impose-an ninyo ba sila ng fine dahil hindi inaalagaan ang planta (if you will impose fines because they don’t take care of the power plants well),” he continued.

Escudero also rejected the claim of the agencies that they are understaffed, saying they were merely using it as a reason to cover their failure to do due diligence by conducting a thorough inspection of power plants.

He underscored the importance of conducting a personal inspection of power plants, as there were 35 unplanned outages during the April 16 declaration of red and yellow alerts in Luzon and Visayas.

On April 16, the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) placed the Luzon grid under red and yellow alerts, while the Visayas grid was under yellow alert. 

A week after, the NGCP also placed the Mindanao grid under yellow alert.  

A yellow alert is issued when the operating margin is insufficient to meet the transmission grid’s contingency requirement. On the other hand, a red alert status is issued when power supply is insufficient to meet consumer demand and the transmission grid’s regulating requirement.

During the same hearing, Tulfo said that during these periods when the grid was placed on red and yellow alerts, the ERC reported that the spot prices in the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) increased.

“Ang presyo ng kuryente sa Luzon ay tumaas ng 11% on average, at ang presyo ng kuryente sa Visayas ay tumaas ng 53% on average. Ang mga pagtaas na ito ay hindi katanggap-tanggap,” he said. 

(The price of electricity in Luzon increased by 11% on average, while the price of electricity in Visayas increased by 53% on average. These increases are unacceptable.) 

The senator further argued that placing the Philippine grid numerous times under red and yellow alerts due to power generation deficiency, which prompted business establishments and the public to reduce their power consumption despite the extreme heat, was an insult. 

Last month, ERC announced that it started its preliminary investigation into the three consecutive days of red and yellow alerts hoisted over the Luzon and Visayas grids.—AOL, GMA Integrated News