NGCP, power plant operators face sanctions over power outages in Western Visayas—ERC

The government is eyeing possible sanctions against the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) and several power plant operators over the massive power blackouts in Western Visayas that affected schools, businesses, and livelihoods, the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) said.

(Photo from the Presidential Communications Office)

In a statement released by Malacañang, ERC Chairperson Mona Dimalanta revealed that they “continue to gather more information to provide clarity on the incident before resorting to any further measures.”

“Ongoing pa po kasi iyong investigation pero so far po, ang nakita natin… nabanggit na rin naman po ng DOE kasi po pare-pareho po kami so far ng datos na nakikita (Investigation is still ongoing but so far, we can see… DOE also mentioned, we noticed the same data). By next week, mayroon na po kaming additional na documents/additional information kasi po nakalap na namin lahat (we will have additional documents/additional information because we have already gathered them). Then, hopefully, mas magkaroon tayo ng paglilinaw (it’ll be clearer),” Dimalanta told a Quezon City news forum on Saturday, Jan. 6.

According to the Presidential Communications Office (PCO), the investigation is being handled by the Interim Grid Management Committee, the same technical group that handled the investigation on the April 2023 power interruption in the same region.

In the same news forum, Dimalanta said that sanctions will be imposed “against NGCP or whoever else is accountable.”

“Kasi hindi po natin basta ine-excuse ang mga planta. Kasi sa anim na planta, meron po ba dun na hindi nag-maintain. Kapag ganun, may penalty din po siya. Hindi lang NGCP (Because we will not just excuse the power plants. Because among the six power plants, is there a plant there that’s not maintained? If it’s like that, there’s also a penalty. Not only NGCP),” she added.

As of Friday afternoon, the NGCP has announced that power supply in Panay and Guimaras islands has been restored and transmission operations have normalized.

But this was after massive power outages in the region this week after multiple power plants tripped in Panay Island.

The Department of Energy (DOE) and the National Electrification Administration (NEA) blamed the NGCP for the outages as 10 electric cooperatives in the Panay grid were affected.

The power outages, which the NGCP earlier said were caused by unscheduled maintenance shutdowns, led to the suspension of classes and closure of majority of businesses in Panay Island.