Senator Risa Hontiveros on Wednesday, May 15 called on the Department of Energy (DOE), the Energy Regulatory Commission, and the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) to demonstrate the foresight and competence needed to address the power supply shortage being felt around the country.

In a statement, the senator expressed deep disappointment over the “continued failure” of the agencies to solve the escalating energy issues, especially this summer. This, despite their primary mandates being that to ensure the public of the adequacy of supply and reliability of the system.

“Parang kulang sa energy ang mismong Department of Energy at puro kabig naman ang NGCP (It seems that DOE lacks energy while the NGCP keeps hauling). DOE’s mandate demands foresight and competence to ensure adequacy of current and future power supply while the NGCP secures the whole system from disturbances, including unplanned and forced outages. Proactive tayo dapat (We should be proactive),” Hontiveros said.

“They cannot go on giving us nothing. Kumilos naman sila (They should act),” she added.

Hontiveros then strongly recommended that the DOE re-adopt a “proven industry-standard method” that had already been used even before the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) was enacted.

“Energy experts I have spoken with say that the DOE is so much better off using computations through loss of load probability (LOLP), and it is one they are already familiar with. LOLP has a distinct advantage when it comes to forecasting power supply availability. Right now, the agency is computing with a fixed 25 percentage reserve, but it hasn’t been reliable, especially during this summer season,” Hontiveros explained.

The LOLP measures the reliability performance of the power supply system. It forecasts the number of days when a brownout could occur in a year.

“Kung ginamit lang ng DOE ang LOLP, nalaman sana nito ang kinakailangang dagdag na capacity para hindi lalagpas sa isang araw kada taon ang may brownout imbes na halos araw-araw may yellow at red alert (If only DOE made use of LOLP, they would know of the needed additional capacity so the brownouts would not exceed a day per year instead of the almost daily yellow and red alerts). DOE must re-evaluate their methodology,” Hontiveros said.

Hontiveros prodded the DOE to tap experts who could help it re-implement the LOLP in planning the country’s power supply.

For NGCP, Hontiveros reiterated her call for them to prioritize system security rather than ensure bountiful harvest of dividends at the end of the fiscal year. The senator cited the April data provided by TransCo showing the NGCP contracting on firm basis at only 46 percent of regulating reserves, 47 percent for contingency reserves, and 28 percent dispatchable reserves.

“Bakit hindi 100 percent? Pareho din lang ba sila sa DOE na nagdadasal na walang titirik na planta along the way? (Why isn't it 100 percent? Are they like DOE that is praying that no plant malfunctions along the way?)” Hontiveros asked.