DOE ‘open’ to Congressional probe into Panay Island power outage

The Department of Energy (DOE) on Thursday welcomed the calls for a Congressional investigation into the widespread power outage that hit Panay Island.

DOE Assistant Secretary Mario Marasigan made the remarks a day after Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas appealed for lawmakers to conduct a legislative inquiry into the blackout, which rendered residential areas and businesses on the island without electricity on Wednesday. 

“Bukas po ang Kagawaran ng Enerhiya sa ganito pong imbestigasyon para maliwanagan at mabigyan ng pansin ang mga sitwasyon na nangyayari,” Marasigan told PTV-4’s Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon. 

(The DOE is open for any investigation to clarify and explain what happened.)

The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) earlier said more than half of the island is already being served by working power plants but the electricity supply on Panay Island remains unstable.

The NGCP said that as of 10 a.m. on Thursday a total of 242.2 megawatts (MW) were being served to the island, 202.9 MW of which was served by Panay power plants, and 39.2 MW by sources elsewhere in the Visayas.

The grid needs about 300 MW to stabilize and is only waiting for the remaining plant from the Palm Concepcion Power Corporation (PCPC) which will serve 135 MW, to synchronize back to the grid. 

Marasigan said the DOE is continuously monitoring the power situation on the island and is consolidating reports from the NGCP and the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to determine the cause of the power outages.

He also said this is not the first time that Western Visayas was hit by a massive outage, adding a similar scenario occurred in the region in April 2023. 

“Humihingi kami ng pasensya at sana maintindihan ng mga konsumidor na ginagawa namin ang lahat para maibalik agad ang serbisyo ng kuryente. Datapwat nangangailangan po ng very discreet, mahinay, slowly pero sure ang serbisyo na maibabalik natin kaagad,” said Marasigan.

(We apologize to the consumers. We hope they will understand that we are exerting efforts to restore the power supply. However, this would need a very discreet, and slow approach to bring back the electricity.)

“Hinahangad po natin na maging stable at di lang po ‘yung panandalian na remedyo ang tinitingnan natin kundi ano-ano pa ang data gawin ng mga stakeholders sa power industry para mabigyan na ng stable at reliable supply hindi lang ang Panay,” he added.

(We want the power supply to be stable so we are looking at ways the stakeholders can do to ensure stable and reliable electricity, not only in Panay.)

A congressional probe into widespread power outages in Western Visayas provinces was proposed in the House of Representatives by Iloilo City lawmaker Julienne “Jam-Jam” Baronda on Wednesday. — BM, GMA Integrated News