At least 10 generation companies (GenCos) that were tagged as culprits in last year’s summer brownouts had been penalized by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) for breaching the prescribed limits on "forced outages" of generating facilities.

According to the ERC, those that have been meted with penalties were: Southwest Luzon Power Generation Corporation; TeaM Sual Corporation; SN-Aboitiz Power-Benguet Inc.; CBK Power Company Limited; SPC Island Power Corporation and Energy Development Corporation.

State-run Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corporation (PSALM) and its former contractor at the Malaya thermal power plant – Soosan ENS Co. Ltd. Phiilippines were also slapped with fines.

The other power firms served with penalties were Sem-Calaca Power Corporation; SPC Power Corporation; and Panay Power Corporation.

The aggregate amount of penalties enforced on the power companies stood at P15.5 million. Penalties are computed based on the number of days of unplanned outages that went beyond the reliability indices set by the ERC per technology.

“We have been on the watch for GenCos who are exceeding allowed unplanned outages,” ERC Chairperson Agnes T. Devanadera said.

She added “We are constantly monitoring and reviewing the weekly reports being submitted by the GenCos in compliance with our directive pertaining to reliability performance indices and equivalent outage days per year of generating units.”

The ERC chief explained that the forced outage caps had been “one of the mechanisms devised by the Commission to ensure that GenCos do not unnecessarily go on an unplanned outage, especially during the summer months when there is surge in power demand and reserves get used up.”

The power plants found to have screwed up on their unplanned downtimes employ varied technologies – including coal plants utilizing circulating fluidized bed (CFB) technology, hydroelectric, diesel, geothermal and oil-fired thermal facilities.

The regulatory body noted that the outrageous plant outages logged last year violated provisions of ERC’s Resolution No. 10 series of 2020, which enforces the maximum or cap for the annual unplanned outages in generating assets.

For the same scale of penalty impositions to be avoided this year, Devanadera is enjoining industry stakeholders “to avoid undergoing any unplanned outage so as not to add burden to the consuming public considering that the COVID-19 pandemic has not been ruled out,” and the country will also be carrying out its synchronized national and local elections.

“We will exercise the punitive powers accorded to ERC by the EPIRA (Electric Power Industry Reform Act) to ensure that electricity consumers’ interests are promoted and protected in terms of uninterruptible power supply. Non-adherence to our regulatory policies is non-negotiable, ” she stressed.