Following the series of transmission facility-induced rotational blackouts in the Luzon and Visayas grids, the Department of Energy (DOE) announced that a two-tiered follow-through audit on the performance of system operator National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) will be carried out – and that will cover regulatory performance and contract performance reviews. In a press conference, Energy Secretary Raphael P.M. Lotilla emphasized that an audit on the financial side of NGCP’s operations had already been concluded by a third-party entity engaged by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) and the warranted reports had likewise been submitted. The next step, according to the energy chief, is “we will follow that through with a regulatory performance audit which is conducted by the ERC; and by a contract performance review which is to be conducted by PSALM (Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corporation) and TransCo (National Transmission Corporation) as the counterparties to the NGCP concession agreement.” To note, it is PSALM that has been vested with authority under the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) to privatize the country’s transmission assets via a 25-year concession deal; while TransCo is the legally sanctioned owner of the transmission facilities. On the initial batch of audit done on the transmission firm-concessionaire, Lotilla stipulated that the outcome of it “will be taken into account in the rate rebasing review (for NGCP) that is being undertaken right now.” The DOE secretary further asserted that from the conduct of the audits, including scrutiny on the cybersecurity facet of the transmission firm’s operations, the prudent move for the government is to “assess in objective manner – what are the problems in the transmission system? And what can we do in order to address these problems?” On media queries whether the State will take the recourse of reverse privatization if NGCP will not keep up with its mandated function and role in the management and operations of the country’s transmission system, Lotilla qualified “it is Congress that approves the franchise. And Congress has other or various ways of ‘exacting accountability’ from those who operate as monopolies under the franchise; and we will work closely with Congress in making sure that these performance standards are adhered to by those who enjoy the franchise.” As of Tuesday (May 9), another round of 17-minute brownout or service interruptions distressed consumers in some parts of the Luzon grid; and that was mainly attributed to 419 megawatts drop on system load after the power plants in Bataan suffered forced outages due to the tripping of the Hermosa-Duhat 230 kilovolt (kV) line of NGCP. The brownouts occurred from 3:40 to 3:57pm. Within the franchise area of the Manila Electric Company (Meralco), more than 200,000 customers had been affected – primarily in the portions of Paco and Santa Mesa, Manila; Caloocan, Malabon, Batangas, Antipolo in Rizal, San Pedro and Binan in Laguna; as well as San Rafael and Pulilan in Bulacan. Relative to the May 8 (Monday) rotational brownouts in Luzon, Energy Undersecretary Rowena Cristina Guevara said it was the tripping of the Bolo-Masinloc Line 2 which triggered the forced outage of the two generating units of the Masinloc plant – and that was the last nail in the coffin that then plunged Luzon grid into suffering the dreaded power service interruptions. When asked on the official explanation given by NGCP on that technical upset in the electricity system, the energy official relayed: “their initial explanation was: there was heavy rains and lightning in that area and it hit their transmission line.” Guevara, nevertheless, specified that the transmission company was directed to submit its official correspondence to the DOE on the matter by 1:00pm on Tuesday (May 9). For the power interruptions hitting Visayas on April 27-29, she conveyed that the root cause” was again a transmission line that started it all,” qualifying that as a result of the incident, “several plants went down after the transmission line went out.” She expounded “the reason was that: there was no synchronization of the relay timing of the protection of the generators, transmission lines and the distribution lines.” Taking off from that then, she stated that the energy department has directed NGCP “within two weeks, to fix that synchronization of the protection relay’s timing.” When DOE was quizzed on forward outlook in terms of power supply, especially for the Luzon grid, Guevarra noted that the targeted return-to-operation of the Ilijan gas-fired power plant by the last week of May this year will help ease the supply tightness predicament of the country’s biggest power grid in the months ahead. “We expect it (Ilijan plant) to come on May 26. But initially, we do not expect the full 1,200 megawatts – it (generation) will ramp up gradually per unit. For our June outlook, that will change when Ilijan comes on-line,” she stressed. In a statement, NGCP acknowledged that its Bolo-Masinloc transmission line-2 tripped; and that precipitated the outage also of the units 2 and 3 of the Masinloc plant with aggregate capacity of 630MW. While admitting that the incident was both unexpected and undesirable, NGCP narrated that the line was “restored within 19 minutes”; and the affected unit 2 was fully reintegrated into the grid by 3:26am on May 9 (Tuesday), while unit 1 had been back to operation earlier. “We are coordinating with Masinloc power plant and other grid-connected generating plants on the way forward and to ensure that protection settings are in sync between generating plants and NGCP,” the company said.