Brand new power plant outages puzzle ERC

The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) is planning a review of supposedly new power plants but already forced into power outages.

Puzzled by the two-day yellow alert this week, ERC Chairman Agnes Devanadera told reporters on Tuesday that an inquiry into the power outages involving the new power plants is a must.

“Based on our data, the zero- to five-years old, they were having unplanned outages already. I think it is very ironic that there was a yellow alert,” she said.

“I don’t know who will conduct the study but somebody should come up with a study on the outages,” she added.

The Luzon grid on Tuesday was put on a second-day yellow alert amid a thin power inventory.

A total of 4,897 megawatts (MW) of power supply was unavailable as of Tuesday, of which 2,944 MW was shaved off from the grid due to forced plant outages

Some 1,773 MW more was unavailable due to lesser output from so-called derated power plants.