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Manila Bulletin devider Philippines devider National devider Stiffer penalty vs power-related violations a must—Gatchalian

Stiffer penalty vs power-related violations a must—Gatchalian

Published Jan 12, 2024 04:34 am

Senator Sherwin Gatchalian said tougher penalties should be imposed against industry players who would be found guilty of mismanaging their power services that eventually affect day-to-day businesses and hurt the economy. 

 

Gatchalian pointed out that the maximum penalty of P50-million that the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) imposes for any violation of the country’s grid code is “not worth their while.”

 

“I propose that, as part of our legislative output, we peg the penalty commensurate with the economic losses experienced by affected areas due to negligence and incompetence,” Gatchalian said following the Senate Committee on Energy’s hearing on the power outage that gripped Western Visayas.

 

The senator lamented that the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines’ (NGCP) failed to properly address the issue at hand.

 

Gatchalian said he believes the NGCP will take issues more seriously if stiffer penalties are imposed for violations. 

 

He noted that the combined economic losses from the power outage incurred by both Iloilo province and Iloilo City have reportedly reached P5.7-billion.

 

“Clearly, it wasn’t in a normal state anymore because there was already a deficiency in power supply when a power plant went down at past 12 noon on January 2,” he said. 

 

“The demand went up, creating an imbalance in the grid. When you have a negative margin, that will definitely disrupt the grid,” he pointed out. 

 

At the time of the disruption, the senator said the region had a deficiency of 55 megawatts or 15% of the total requirement and should have prompted NGCP to take immediate actions by following the National Grid Code. 

 

Gatchalian said such a move could have prevented a widespread power interruption in the region, a sentiment ERC Chairperson Monalisa Dimalanta also agreed with. 

 

The ERC noted that during that time the outage occurred there was already an imbalance in the grid. The state of power in the area is also already in a state of alert. 

 

The lawmaker also said that NGCP should have conducted manual load droppings to reduce demand and prevented the massive outage. 

 

 

Related Tags

Energy Regulatory Commission National Grid Corporation of the Philippines Sherwin Gatchalian
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