Brownouts are exacerbating our crisis situation. Investigate the power plant outages!
June 2, 2021
As the National Grid Corporation (NGCP) placed the entire Luzon grid on red alert and yellow alert due to the various power plant outages that occurred in the past few days, consumers are left with no other option but to deal with the inconvenience of rotational brownouts that may last until June 7.
During a Joint Congressional Energy Commission last April, Department of Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi was confident that there would not be a demand-driven energy shortage for the months of April-June.
In a press briefing during the same period, Energy Assistant Secretary Redentor Delola claimed that the Philippines will have sufficient levels of supply for the hot dry season despite the already thinning reserves resulting from several power plant shutdowns.
Despite all of these assurances, consumers now find themselves in the dark resulting from a lack of pre-emptive action and measures that could have mitigated the effects of this power shortage on the hundreds of thousands who are working from home and students attending online classes who are relying on stable electricity and internet connection.
With the ongoing cases of power plant outages and deficient electricity reserves, distribution utilities would now have to source electricity from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM), burdening consumers with unwarranted spikes in electricity prices.
CitizenWatch Philippines calls for energy regulators to investigate all power plants that have gone offline during these critical weeks where rotational brownouts are making life for consumers and struggling businesses even more difficult and expensive!
Reliable and uninterrupted power supply is very critical, to power our digital devices and connect to internet to access the daily digital online services we need to cope with this pandemic and the hot summer weather. Furthermore, it is critical that reliable power is assured for vaccination storage and COVID treatment facilities.
We call for accountability and quick action from energy regulators.