By Filane Mikee Cervantes/Philippine News Agency
MANILA — The entire electric power industry must share a collective responsibility over the rotating brownouts in Luzon due to the unplanned outages of five generators, an official of the Department of Energy (DOE) said on Thursday.
During a Senate inquiry into the recent supply deficiency, DOE Undersecretary Jesus Posadas said the DOE, National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP), the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), the distribution utilities and the generating companies should share collective responsibility for the power outages.
“The entire industry must share collective responsibility over what happened… there are no quick fixes to such incidents,” Posadas said.
“Rest assured that the DOE is continuously finding ways to prevent a similar incident from happening again,” Posadas added.
Posadas said the DOE is ensuring that the NGCP complies with their concession agreement as well as power reserve requirements.
Aside from fast-tracking the approval of new power plants, Posadas noted that the department is also monitoring the construction of transmission lines to ensure power reliability for the country.
Posadas cited the planned construction of the Visayas and Mindanao interconnection Project, which would help export excess power of Mindanao to Visayas and Luzon, would be completed by 2020.
“The DOE puts consumers interest first and we are committed in ensuring that all efforts are made to deliver the best possible service to the public,” he said.
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