The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) is quick to blame power plants again as the Luzon-Visayas grid plunged into yellow and red alerts today, Sept. 12.
We at Kuryente.Org can see the same old script being rolled out all over again. NGCP will blame power plants, power plants will blame NGCP, and the government will blame everybody. We are even projecting a new round of congressional hearings again to discuss the same old seasonal issue we face every few months.
This is a new challenge for the regulators in the energy industry — Secretary Raphael Lotilla and Energy Regulatory Commission chair Monalisa Dimalanta. Also to energy committees in Congress: Rep. Lord Alan Velasco and Sen. Raffy Tulfo. You are all new faces with the same old problems on your hands.
We are sick and tired of all these situations, as we, the consumers, cannot do anything but to watch these over and over again and suffer the impact of having no electricity.
Kuryente.Org has three questions we hope NGCP, DOE, and ERC will answer:
There are plants which are on scheduled maintenance shutdown. What are the plants that had forced shutdowns today which led to the yellow and red alert?
What happened to the ancillary services-competitive selection process which NGCP is supposed to roll out?
What is NGCP doing to upgrade its system backbone particularly in Luzon and what is the update on critical infrastructure like the Mindanao-Visayas interconnection project which could have unlocked excess capacity in MIndanao that could have helped Visayas and Luzon?
NIC SATUR JR.
National Coordinator
Kuryente.Org
nsaturjrkuryente.org@gmail.com
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