Alyansa ng mga Grupong Haligi ng Agham at Teknolohiya Para sa Mamamayan (AGHAM) President Angelo Palmones has faulted energy authorities for their lack of foresight and action regarding nuclear-based power generation, which could have helped avoid the recent spate of "red alert" status in the Luzon gird.

"Nuclear power plants remain unacceptable in the Philippines while we envy other neighboring economies enjoying cheap power from their modern nuclear reactors," Palmones said on Sunday, June 6.

"Neither DOE (Department of Energy) nor ERC (Energy Regulatory Commission) have invested a single centavo for social acceptance of power plants. Why? The better question is who’s the richest member of the Cabinet?" Palmones said, without mentioning anybody.

The Luzon grid slipped in and out of red alert status from Monday to Wednesday this past week. Having red alert denotes a severe lack of power reserves, which more often than not leads to rotational brownouts.

The lack of power reserves itself was caused by the bogging down of multiple power plants in Luzon, which lessened the capacity of the grid by over 2,017 megawatts (MW). The situation was worrisome since the government doesn't want to waste any of its coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccines, which are kept in refrigerators.

"This week’s power shortage problem has been foreseen by DOE, ERC, NGCP (National Grid Corporation of the Philippines), and all power supply providers in early April this year. Did we prepare? Who failed to notify the public?" asked Palmones.

"Our power supply problem will continue to persist until more base-load power plants are installed. Regulatory policies must also be eased to attract more private players in power generation," he said.

"In the past years, the focus was on the expensive renewable energy production like solar plants or wind mills. These are not base-load power plants! It’s soothing to the ears but very agonizing to the consumers’ budget," reckoned the head of the science-savvy consumer group.

"DOE and ERC rely on the Interruptible Load Program of big commercial businesses using pricy diesel oil. WESM (Wholesale Electricity Spot Market) comes in with more expensive power supply from the spot market. So, sino ang kumita? (Who raked in the profits?)

"In reality, the ordinary end-users are burdened paying for the investments of bigtime businessmen through the universal charges imposed by power distributors," Palmones further opined.

The country does have a nuclear-based power plant in the Bataan Nuclear Power Plant (BNPP), but the obsolete facility is more of a relic from the Marcos administration than anything else.

Completed in 1984, the BNPP was never fired up due to a confluence of events, most notably the 1986 EDSA People Power Revolution and the Chernobyl nuclear disaster that same year. The single-reactor plant cost $2.3 billion.

In 2017, DOE Secretary Alfonso Cusi said the government would have to invest $1 billion in "reviving" the BNPP. Cusi also said that due to the sensitive nature and history of the BNPP, the public's approval via national referendum must be gained first before the controversial plant could be activated.