Consumer group Power for People Coalition (P4P) castigated local power generation companies (gencos) Wednesday, June 2 for failing to meet the power demand in the Luzon grid amid sizzling summer temperatures.

Thin power reserves have led to rotational brownouts in several parts of Luzon, including Metro Manila, causing the grid to be placed on "red alert" for two hours on Monday and 11 hours on Tuesday.

Wednesday was actually worse as power demand went 200 megawatts (MW) over the available power supply.

This took place even as the country sought to ramp up its immunization efforts against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the vaccine of which must always be kept refrigerated to keep from spoiling.

"Consumers are not getting our money’s worth from our electricity sector,” said Gerry Arances, P4P Convenor.

“As we experience the first red alert in Luzon since June 2019, we remember the bill shock, the high price we pay for electricity, and the constant warnings we have given about the generation companies who keep getting off the hook despite the unreliability of their power plants," he said.

The dwindling of reserves Monday was caused by the 1,285 MW in lost power supply due to forced outages of the GN Power Dinginin Coal-fired Power Plant Unit 1 and Sual Coal-fired Power Plant Unit 2, on top of the planned outage of a 435-MW hydropower plant and major derating of the Ilijan gas plant due to the Malampaya gas restriction.

Unit 2 of GN Power Mariveles coal plant also forcibly went offline early Tuesday morning allegedly due to a tube leak.

“We hope these alerts would spur our regulators into making decisive measures to shield consumers from inconveniences like this moving forward. Penalties for irresponsible gencos would be a start. Ensuring power contracts entered by electricity companies are consumer-friendly and hastening the shift to more reliable and affordable renewable energy systems should also be prioritized,” Arances said.