Senator Raffy Tulfo is drafting a plan to assemble the Joint Congressional Energy Commission (JCEC) to assess whether to revise or overall scratch the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines’ (NGCP) franchise.
This came after the Western Visayas’ three-day power outage at the start of the year, which Tulfo deemed as NGCP’s failure to execute its responsibility as the Systems Operator (SO) of the country’s energy grid.
“It can be noted that said failure by the NGCP to maintain the stability of the grid led to the recent massive power outage in Western Visayas, which includes Panay Island,” said the senator.
Tulfo, in his role as the Senate Committee on Energy Chairman, emphasized that consumers bore the repercussions of incidental costs imposed on electric utilities due to the incidents.
Furthermore, he cited that among the lapses of the NGCP is to inform and communicate with the government agencies and stakeholders on possible events of blackout. It is worth mentioning that the SO failed to update the agencies hours before the Panay Island blackout.
During the Senate probe last January 10, Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas, Guimaras Governor Joaquin Nava, and Governor Arthur Defensor protested that a number of critical establishments were affected by the blackout. Due to this, the island incurred billions of pesos lost due to the corporation’s slip-up.
