Marinduque lone district Rep. Lord Allan Velasco (Facebook)

House Committee on Energy Chairman, Marinduque lone district Rep. Lord Allan Velasco has raised the possibility that some sectors are capitalizing on the annual red and yellow alerts of the power grid. 

Velasco, a former House Speaker, floated this during the energy panel's hearing Tuesday, May 14 on these frequent red and yellow power alerts and forced shutdown of dozens of power plants. 

“Every time [there are] red and yellow alerts, tumataas ang presyo ng kuryente (the cost of electricity rises). It comes to mind bakit year in year out, bakit merong interruptions At the back of our minds, 'Teka, parang may kumikita (Why is it that year in and year out, there are power interruptions. At the back of our minds, 'Wait, somebody seems to be making a profit here),'" That’s the question,” he said. 

During the same hearing, the country’s grid operator, the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP), blamed what it called "power generation failures" for the vast majority of supply shortfalls as indicated by so-called yellow and red alerts in country from 2016 to 2023. 

Based on NGCP's presentation, 226 out of 234 system yellow and red alerts--or a staggering 96.6 percent--were caused by generation issues such as unplanned or emergency shutdowns. 

It said that Luzon and Visayas were placed on yellow and red alerts on April 16 after several power plants went on planned and unplanned shutdown. 

In Luzon, eight power plants went on planned shutdown. There were also 30 unplanned shutdowns, while three operated on derated capacity. In the Visayas, 10 plants were on planned shutdown, while 17 were unplanned and three derated. 

Overall, 90 percent of power plants during that time went on unplanned shutdown, while the rest were planned outages. 

”Everyone is in agreement na ang problema ay supply (that supply is the problem)," said Velasco, who noted that the situation had persisted for years. 

“Kailangan nating maayos ito. We are looking forward na wala na tayong red and yellow alerts. Kaya taun-taon nagpapatawag ng imbestigasyon sa both Houses,” added the former Speaker. 

(We need to fix this. We are looking forward to a time when there are no more red and yellow alerts. That's why both Houses call for an investigation every year.) 

“These red and yellow alerts do not happen only this year. It happens year in, year out. There is a clear disconnect,” commented APEC Party-list Rep. Sergio Dagooc. 

Velasco also emphasized the failure of the DOE and the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to penalize plants that fail to deliver its required output on time, leading to more supply issues. 

“Hindi ba kailangan na when generator says kaya naming ilagay itong 1000 mw (megawatts) at this point in time tapos na-delay, shouldn’t there be penalty imposed on them also? Kung wala, eh di wala, okay lang, delay lang ako nang delay,” he said. 

(Shouldn't there be a need to penalize a generator if, for instance, it says it can deliver 1000 mw at this point in time, but gets delayed? Because if they aren't penalized, they okay, I can keep delaying it.)