The Regional Development Council (RDC) is calling on the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to determine the root cause of the prolonged power outages that hit Western Visayas starting Tuesday, and to come up with steps to prevent future recurrence, Bacolod Mayor Alfredo Abelardo “Albee” Benitez said on Wednesday, January 3.
Panay suffered from blackouts and Negros Occidental from numerous power outages.
An RDC emergency Zoom meeting with representatives of the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP), Department of Energy (DOE) and the power generators was held Wednesday afternoon, Benitez, who chairs the RDC, said.
“Basically what we are saying is the disturbance to the grid could be because of NGCP,” he said.
The six power plants of Panay Island tripped at the same time on Tuesday and it is hard to believe that all of them would fail at the same time, Benitez said.
“So they are now pinpointing it to NGCP’s inefficient protection system,” Benitez said.
“A similar power problem happened last year and there were recommendations on what the NGCP should do…I don’t think there were completely executed”, he said.
ERC should do the monitoring, a protection system should be in place, Benitez said.
NGCP, in press statement released Wednesday, said it is renewing its call for a whole-of-industry approach, including better energy resource planning, following the January 2 power outage due to tripping of multiple power plants which isolated Panay Island from the rest of the Visayas grid.
“The unscheduled maintenance shutdowns of the largest power plants in Panay Island was the primary cause of the power interruption. We emphasize the need for improved planning to ensure sufficient generation per island, with a well-balanced mix of fuels and technology,” NGCP said.
NGCP underscored the need to conduct a more robust resource optimization planning by policy makers, to ensure that solutions to power system concerns are approached from all angles, and the most efficient ones prioritized.
Given the configuration of the Panay sub-grid and its dependency on variable energy sources in Negros when it losses internally generated power, NGCP also noted the need to provide sufficient non-variable sources to stabilize the system. The company also included its Cebu-Negros-Panay Stage 3 project (CNP3) as a contributing solution.
NGCP strongly recommends the review of the Philippine Grid Code to cater to renewable energy sources, particularly the effective use of emerging technologies such as energy storage systems, among others, the statement said.
The DOE on Wednesday reminded the NGCP to adhere to its responsibilities as System Operator in ensuring supply security and reliability of the grid.*