ERC plans new study on power plant outages

The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) is considering conducting a new study on power plant outages amid the recent yellow alerts raised in the Luzon grid.

“I don’t know yet who should do the study but somebody should come up with the study on the outages,” ERC chairperson and chief executive officer Agnes Devanadera said.

“Based on our data, unplanned outages are occurring in power plants that are zero to five years old,” she said.

Devanadera said she is keen on getting the list of the 50 Philippine power plants supplied by the Mitsubishi Group.

“I am interested to get the list because that could be part of the data we are trying to combine,” Devanadera said.

The proposal to conduct a study is in light of the yellow alerts raised in the Luzon grid at the start of the week.

The Luzon grid was placed on yellow alert on Monday and Tuesday due to low power reserves brought about by power plant shutdowns coinciding with the Malampaya maintenance, coupled with forced outage of other major plants.

Earlier this year, the ERC investigated the rotational brownouts that occurred in the Luzon grid during the summer months.

Based on the initial findings of the commission, there are newer plants that went on forced outage than the aging plants.

Devanadera had called this “disturbing” because these are still new plants.

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 years old that went on forced outage, which accounted for nearly 20 percent.

ERC said it 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.

Since the start of the year, NGCP has raised 15 red alert warnings while 47 yellow alert notices were raised on the Luzon grid.

In June alone, it said there were 13 yellow alert and five red alert warnings.