Senator Risa Hontiveros on Tuesday, September 20 welcomed the show cause order issued by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) against the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) saying this is a “first step toward accountability.”

The ERC’s show cause orders, Case Nos 129, 130 and 131, requires the NGCP to explain its non-compliance with policies and programs meant to secure and stabilize of the nation’s power grid following the recent power outages in the Luzon grid.

“This is a welcome first step toward accountability for the NGCP’s shabby and inadequate service of the power needs of Filipinos. Kailangang magpaliwanag ang NGCP kung bakit sa kabila ng bilyon-bilyon nilang kita ay kulang ang kanilang serbisyong binibigay bilang power grid operator (NGCP should be made to explain why despite earning billions they can’t provide adequate services as a power grid operator),” Hontiveros said.

The show cause orders were issued by the ERC on September 16, 2022 asking the NGCP to account for its failure to comply with the policies issued by the Department of Energy (DOE) in October 2021.

The policies involved contracting of ancillary services, which the ERC said are services “necessary to support the transmission of capacity and energy from resources to loads while maintaining reliable operation of the grid.”

“If we do not demand accountability, industry players in the power sector will always view the government as their captive rather than a power to reckon with,” the senator pointed out.

Hontiveros, likewise, urged the ERC to also issue show cause orders to generation companies that recently went simultaneously offline, leading to power outages across Luzon.

She also said the ERC and DOE should probe why the NGCP had to place the Luzon grid on red alert status after the outages by the seven generation companies, and why the NGCP seemingly failed to comply with previous DOE orders to secure firm ancillary service contracts and improve its transmission lines.

“I am also worried about, at the same time puzzled, by the situation that the Luzon grid with peak demand at 12,000 MW, continues to suffer inadequacy in supply despite sufficient dependable capacity of 23,410 MW from the total installed capacity of 26,250 MW of the national grid, according to DOE’s Power Statistics for 2020,” she said.

The senator said the issue regarding contracting ancillary services is just one of the many issues that NGCP should explain to the public.

“I urge the ERC to expand and dig-deeper its investigation on the whole spectrum of issues and problems involving the NGCP and other power industry players - including a possible scenario in which distribution utilities are compelled to buy expensive power from WESM (Wholesale Electricity Spot Market) due to failures and inefficiencies in transmission and non-compliance with ancillary service requirements,” Hontiveros stressed.

“During this time of crisis, consumers should not be forced to pay for the errors, negligence and abuses of energy companies and their officials,” she further said.