The chairman of the Senate Committee on Energy has expressed concern that the rotational brownouts in the islands of Panay and Negros, which started last April 27, could possibly continue in the coming days. Senator Raffy Tulfo, committee chairman, said he was initially informed that the power outages started due to the line fault or tripping in the transmission line of the  National Grid Corporation (NGCP). The NGCP, however, is blaming the Central Negros Electric Cooperative (CENECO), the senator pointed out “Tinawagan na namin ang DOE (Department of Energy) at ERC (Energy Regulatory Commission) para paimbestigahan ang problema at kung sino talaga ang pinag-ugatan dahil nagtuturuan ang NGCP at CENECO (We called up the DOE snd ERC so they could investigate the problem and who is really at fault as NGCP and CENECO are blaming each other),’’ he stressed. Tulfo recalled that it was 8 A.M. yesterday, April 30, when he received information stating that the cause of the power outages in Panay and Negros was the transmission line of the NGCP. This prompted him to urgently create an investigation and monitoring team to look into the problem. First off, Tulfo said he and his team had a conference call with NGCP to allow the latter to explain. He said the NGCP pointed put that the problem is not with them because the tripping or line fault allegedly originated from the line of CENECO, and that there was a domino effect that’s why their line was also affected, thereby causing power outages even in Panay Tulfo added that NGCP said that in case like this wherein there is a line fault or tripping, there should be protection systems to prevent the fault from spreading. While NGCP claimed that its protection system worked as intended, Tulfo questioned why Panay was affected even though its electricity was not being supplied by CENECO. Tulfo and his team also called CENECO. He shared that according to the cooperative, there was voltage fluctuation and frequency imbalance in the 69kV line that is under the management of NGCP. CENECO likewise claimed that this problem also affected MORE, GUIMELCO, ILECO 1, ILECO 2, ILECO 3, ANTECO, CAPELCO and AKELCO which NGCP already admitted to them last April 28 while purportedly giving then warning that there was a short supply in the grid. Tulfo said that CENECO even said that all the electric cooperatives in Panay and Negros already issued a unified stand pointing to the NGCP as the root of the problem. Meanwhile, in Tulfo’s and his team’s discussion  with DOE and ERC, the senator underscored the need for them to conduct an in-depth investigation of what really happened and who is at fault to prevent this kind of power outages from happening again, not only in Panay and Negros but also in other parts of the country. For now, Tulfo said he and his team continue to monitor the situation.