Poe renews call to speed up completion of Cebu-Panay-Negros project
By Dhel Nazario
Sen. Grace Poe reiterated the Senate's call for the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines to expedite the completion of the Cebu-Panay-Negros project and all other power transmission projects.
"Delay is a denial of public service," she said in a statement on Thursday, Feb. 8.
This was after the NGCP issued an advisory that it may implement Manual Load Dropping to preserve the integrity of the Panay sub-grid pursuant to the provisions of the Philippine Grid Code.
It said that it was informed of the reduction of power produced by Palm Concepcion Power Corporation's from 124MW to 65MW due to issues internal to the plant. NGCP added that it has likewise been advised that this internal issue may cause PCPC to shut down entirely.
She said that NGCP’s resort to rotational brownout is not solving the problem, and while this may prevent another domino effect of plant tripping and eventual collapse of the grid, we need a more proactive stance from our sole power transmission operator.
"Hangga't may delay, walang seguridad ang suplay ng kuryente hindi lamang sa Panay kundi sa buong bansa (As long as there's a delay, there no security in the power supply not only of Panay but the whole country)," she said.
"Dumagdag pa sa problema ang kakulangan sa periodic maintenance ng mga power plants (In addition to this problem is the lack of periodic maintenance of power plants)," she added.
Poe stated that PCPC's failure to conduct plant maintenance as scheduled in August 2023 had a negative effect not only to its operations but to the entire power supply in Panay.
She also mentioned that the Energy Regulatory Commission should also look into NGCP’s limited visitational powers. This effectively prevents proper monitoring of the plants.
"A responsible power transmission operator should pursue long-term solutions and not knee-jerk responses. All power providers and regulatory agencies must work together overtime to restore integrity of the grid," she said.
"The public should be given a definite timeline as to how long this power crisis will be. Lalo na sa mga taga Panay kung nasaan ang mga pinaka-problemadong power suplay sa bansa," she added.