The Senate Committee on Energy has vowed to look into the recent spate of rotational power outages in Luzon in a bid to find a long-term solution to the electricity supply problems hounding the country especially during the summer.

During the plenary debates on Wednesday, senators turned critical of the Department of Energy (DOE) whose chief, Alfonso Cusi, spearheaded the Partido Demokratikong Pilipino (PDP)-Laban council meeting in Cebu City in the midst of the sudden brownouts.

Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, who chairs the Senate energy committee, had expressed alarm over the apparent power shortage, saying the Philippines cannot afford to have rotational brownouts in the midst of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and to prevent the spoilage of the vaccines that need to be stored carefully at room temperature.

Gatchalian moved for a Senate inquiry into the issue as he underscored the role of the DOE in ensuring the quality, reliability, security and affordability of electric power supply in the country.

“This is a critical situation and I would like to request the DOE to get all hands on deck especially in the next coming days because from the forecast that I am seeing, there will be a problem of load dropping in the next eight days,” Gatchalian said during the plenary session.

The senator filed Senate Resolution No. 740 as he stressed it is crucial to hold the DOE accountable for its failure to address power supply shortages since 2016.

“The DOE even gave assurances during the Energy committee’s hearing on April 27 that there is no high risk of supply shortage during the summer season yet some areas in Luzon experienced rotational brownouts on May 31 and June 1 due to red alerts,” he said.

“Furthermore, it is crucial for the DOE to provide long-term solutions to this problem and a specific timeline for these plans, to include the hastening of the build out of new power plants, aggressively utilizing energy efficiency and conservation and contracting sufficient ancillary reserves,” he pointed out.

“All these things are necessary to protect the public and the economy from losses due to power outages and the resulting high prices of electricity due to limited power supply,” the lawmaker reiterated.

Sen. Manny Pacquiao in a separate privilege speech, took a jab at Cusi, his partymate in the PDP-Laban, for prioritizing politics over the power problems hounding Luzon.

Pacquiao joined other senators in calling for accountability on the part of Cusi and other concerned agencies.

“We’re expecting bigger problems pertaining to power supply, have we done enough preparations for a surge in power supply demand this summer? This is a recurring problem. We cannot rely on the same strategies to solve this problem on the rapidly growing demand for power supply,” Pacquiao stressed.