Senator Win Gatchalian called on the Department of Energy (DOE) to provide an explanation on the rotational power outages that hit parts of Luzon starting Sunday and urged for the aggressive implementation of solutions to address the issue.
“Such power interruptions are unacceptable at a time when the country is in dire need of a steady supply of energy as we all work toward sustaining the country’s economic recovery. The DOE must ensure a steady supply of energy necessary for our businesses and organizations, particularly MSMEs and our learning institutions, to implement unrestricted operations especially during summer,” he said.
“All power plants should be built on time and generation companies should follow the maximum allowable days that plants can be on outage,” Gatchalian said in reiterating solutions to rotational power outages that were proposed to the previous administration.
Gatchalian also reminded the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) of its obligation to fully contract the required reserves as mandated by a DOE circular.
For the long term, Gatchalian further proposed the energy department must ensure timely construction of power generation plants in the country to ease any possible tightness in supply in the future and address any spike in electricity demand and address any delay caused by permitting by fully implementing the Energy Virtua One Stop Shop (EVOSS) Act.
The vice-chairman of the Senate Committee on Energy also said that the DOE must also ensure the full implementation of the Transmission Development Plan (TDP) designed to ensure the build out of the grid infrastructure to prevent stranded power plants.
Further, the government should also ensure that the Grid Operating Grid Management Program (GOMP) or the schedule of planned outages of power generating plants as well as transmission facilities is followed, Gatchalian said.
“Nariyan na ang mga solusyon para maiwasan ang ganitong mga pangyayari. Kailangan lang nating masiguro na naipapatupad ang mga solusyong ito para masigurong mayroon tayong sapat na supply sa buong bansa,” he added.
