ERC nears completion of investigation on brownouts

MANILA, Philippines — The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) will ensure equal treatment to new and ageing plants as it nears completion of its investigation on the rotational brownouts that occurred in the Luzon grid last month.

The power regulator will soon come out with its recommendations on the recent red alerts and brownouts caused by the forced outage of power plants, according to ERC commissioner Catherine Maceda.

“Two ERC directors are ready to present their findings and recommendations in the next commission meeting,” Maceda said, adding that “when they present, the commission will be ready to decide based on the recommendations and the data presented.”

The commissioner said they would not give special consideration to older plants and would operate on a principle of a free and open market and a level-playing field as mandated under the Electric Power Industry Reform Act (EPIRA) of 2001.

Based on the initial findings of the ERC, there are more newer plants that went on forced outage than the ageing plants.

ERC chairperson Agnes Devanadera called this as “disturbing” because these are still new plants.

“This is a very interesting slide because zero to five year-old plants far exceeded the 26 to 30 year-old plants, but if you make it to 16 to 30 years old, that’s 62 percent of the entire capacity,” she said.

From March 5 to April 25, yellow and red alert warnings were raised in the Luzon grid. And during that time, plants aged zero to five years old accounted for over 20 percent of total supply that were lost to the grid.

This was compared to the plants aged 26 to 30 year old that went on forced outage, which accounted for nearly 20 percent.

The ERC directed the owners of these newer plants to explain why their power plants tripped.

The power regulator will also take a look at the technology and equipment used in the power plants as part of the criteria in its investigation.

From March to April, nine power plants went on unplanned outages, including the 135-megawatt Unit 1 of South Luzon Thermal Energy Corp. (March 20), 382-MW Pagbilao 1 of Pagbilao Energy Corp. (March 26), 344-MW Masinloc 2 of Masinloc Power Partners Co. Ltd. (March 29), 420-MW Pagbilao 3 of Pagbilao Energy Corp. (April 2), 20-MW Makban Unit 7 of AP Renewables Inc. (April 3), 150-MW Unit 2 of Southwest Luzon Power Generation Corp. (April 7), 647-MW Sual 1 of Team Energy Corp. (April 9), 70-MW Limay A1 of Panasia Energy Inc. (April 11) and the 150-MW Unit 2 of San Miguel Consolidated Power Corp. (April 11).

Some of the power plants are also operating with reduced capacity – 344-MW Unit 2 of Masinloc Power Partners Co. Ltd. at 250 MW; 150-MW Unit 2 of Southwest Luzon Power Generation Corp. at 100 MW; 420-MW Pagbilao 3 of Pagbilao Energy Corp. at 315 MW and the 300-MW Calaca 2 of SEM-Calaca Power Corp. at 200 MW.

Earlier, the Department of Energy said it would elevate to President Duterte its findings on the red alert warnings and widespread rotational blackouts that recently occurred in the Luzon grid.

The same findings will also be submitted to the ERC, Philippine Competition Commission and Congress.