By Filane Mikee Cervantes/Philippine News Agency
MANILA — The Joint Congressional Power Commission on Thursday convened a public hearing to find solutions to address the recent spate of power outages in Luzon.
The hearing, which was called to order on the heels of the simultaneous power plant shutdowns, was presided by Senate committee on energy chair Sherwin Gatchalian and his House counterpart, Marinduque Rep. Lord Allan Jay Velasco.
Gatchalian said the oversight body would determine the timetable of solutions to prevent another series of brownouts.
Department of Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi said the agency has been building capacity, noting that it is working to increase the power grid’s contingency reserve to 25 percent to cover peak demand in the power system.
“We have been building capacity. We have been encouraging business investors in the energy sector,” Cusi said.
Cusi said the agency is also seeking more investments in merchant power plants to further spur competition in the electricity spot market.
Cusi said the government was able to successfully sign a memorandum of understanding with China for several merchant plants to be set up in the Philippines.
“They are looking at 600 to 1,200 merchant plants in the country. Instead of giving us a grant, (they would have to) find an investor that would put up a merchant plant. We were able to successfully convince them and it is already in process. It would help us build capacity,” Cusi said.
Aside from building capacity, Cusi also stressed the need to revisit the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) law.
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