MORE Electric and Power Corp. (MORE Power) said that the widespread blackout in Panay Island could have been avoided if the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) had taken action at the start.

Roel Castro, president and chief executive officer of Razon-led MORE Power, said in a radio interview that the NGCP should have addressed the 83 megawatts that were lost from the grid system due to a plant shutdown.

"After two hours, six more plants sequentially shut down. The question is why there were consecutive shutdowns after two hours. The system operator, NGCP, is supposed to protect the system from collapsing,” Castro said

“Seven plants on the island were out, and the fact that a total blackout occurred means that the system was not protected. This is a simplistic understanding of what happened," he added.

MORE Power’s Castro said this in response to ACT Teachers Partylist Representative France Castro who stated that the company should be held accountable for the Panay blackout.

"It's difficult to address the statement of Rep. Castro. In fairness and with respect to the Congressman, she doesn't understand the whole system, and it's difficult to respond if their basis is wrong. It was just an accusation without basis," he said.

On Tuesday this week, Panay Energy Development Corp. Unit 1 tripped around noon due to an “internal issue.”

Then its second unit and other power plants in Panay that were not scheduled for maintenance also shut down.

Meanwhile, Energy Secretary Raphael Lotilla earlier said that the NGCP is at fault for not maintaining the stability of the grid.

"The main accountability is with them because it is NGCP that is tasked with maintaining the stability of the grid,” he said during a television interview.

“The NGCP said it would finish the Panay-Negros-Cebu Interconnection Project in August 2023. And they were not! We are now in January and they promised this in August," he added.

Panay is the sixth-largest and the fourth-most populous island in the Philippines, consisting of the provinces of Aklan, Antique, Capiz, and Iloilo.

Further, the MORE Power executive noted that a similar incident could occur during the El Niño phenomenon if the NGCP fails to protect the entire grid system.

"Even if there is enough generating capacity, a similar total blackout could happen again if the system operator will not be active or will not be working," he stated.

MORE Power said that it is coordinating with the NGCP to restore power to the residents of Iloilo City.

As of now, only 48 percent to 50 percent of the NGCP's allocation is available, resulting in only half of the peak demand being met and rotational brownouts in the province.