President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. pointed fingers to the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) for the recent massive power outage that occurred at Panay Island, which lasted for almost three days.
In a video message on Friday, January 5, President Marcos said that the accountability lies with the NGCP, as they are tasked with grid stability.
"The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines, NGCP, had a crucial two-hour window to prevent the system collapse, as highlighted by the Independent Market Electricity Operator of the Philippines, or IMEOP," the President said.
"Regrettably, during this period, NGCP failed to resort to manual load dropping, resulting in the crisis that we are facing now,'' he added.
According to Marcos, NGCP's failure to act during the crucial two-hour window is a missed opportunity.
"As the system's operator, NGCP must proactively engage with distribution utilities and cooperatives to manage loads and prevent such system collapses," Marcos said.
Marcos stressed that the incident was not the first time that Panay Island encountered a massive blackout. The earlier incident prompted a review of NGCP's performance.
As a result, the review revealed the importance of completing the Panay-Negros-Cebu Interconnections, which were expected by August 2023. However, NGCP failed to comply.
"However, we find ourselves in January 2024, far from the promised completion date of August 2023, and we are still hoping for the Mindanao-Visayas Interconnection by late January of 2024," the chief executive said.
NGCP as responsible for grid stability, Marcos highlighted that "stability involves proactive responses to breakdowns and unexpected events, a duty that NGCP unfortunately has not fulfilled adequately."
Meanwhile, the president urged the NGCP to be transparent in identifying the failures of the said incident.
"I wish to reiterate our call that I made last year for NGCP to be transparent to its stakeholders, utilities, and regulators to acknowledge its responsibility and be transparent in identifying weaknesses in transmission systems. They must identify and address these issues as they are crucial for a resilient and stable power infrastructure," he said.
Marcos also directed the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to complete the reset of NGCP's rates without further delay, ensuring its compliance with its statutory and regulatory obligations, and to "defend in no uncertain terms against any attempt to defer, delay, or prevent the regulatory measures."
On Friday afternoon, the Department of Energy (DOE) also blamed the NGCP for the power outage in Panay Island as it expressed support for a review of the grid operator's congressional franchise.
In an interview with Dos Por Dos on Thursday, Jan. 4, Cynthia Alabanza, AVP Head of Corporate and Public Affairs at NGCP, said that "no signs could dictate the main cause of the said blackout."
