On the day President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos called on the Court of Appeals to reconsider the temporary restraining order against an Energy Regulatory Commission dismissal of San Miguel Corp.'s rate hike petition, two giant power plants of the conglomerate conked out.

ERC issued show cause orders to operators of six power plants that simultaneously went on unplanned outages last 28 November, to explain their sudden shutdown.

Half of the estimated two-gigawatt capacity of the generating companies that went off-grid were those owned by San Miguel Corp. unit SMC Global Power — Masinloc and Sual — which both use coal as fuel.

"Our team is still doing its preliminary review, but the process requires that based on the findings, we first issue Show Cause Orders to allow affected parties to explain," ERC chairperson and CEO Monalisa Dimalanta said in a text message to the Daily Tribune.

Last Monday, six power plants went on forced outages while three others ran on derated capacities, which significantly drained the Luzon grid by 2.648 gigawatts.

It prompted electricity backbone concessionaire National Grid Corporation of the Philippines to raise yellow and red alerts in Luzon.

A yellow alert indicates the power reserve fell below an ideal level. On the other hand, if a shortfall becomes a certainty, a red alert, which points to severe power deficiency that may lead to rotating power interruptions, is declared.

Not on schedule
The power plants that went on forced outages were Calaca 2, GNPower Mariveles 1, Sual 1, and Sta. Rita Module 20, Masinloc 3, and San Buenaventura Power Plant. Those that ran on derated capacities are Masinloc 1, Masinloc 2, and Magat.

Yearly, generation companies submit their respective proposed maintenance schedules to finalize the Grid Operating and Maintenance Program policy.

GOMP provides the schedule of planned or maintenance outages of gencos and transmission facilities that the Department of Energy uses as a guide in tracking electricity balance.

The policy also allows power players to come up with accurate power supply and demand projections.

Gencos are allowed unplanned outage days but if they incur cumulative unscheduled outages beyond the limit, they are penalized.

SMC Global Power is under fire for violating its own power supply agreements and has been barred by the ERC from changing the fixed price provision of its PSA for the Sual and Ilijan plants.

Consumer advocates criticized SMC for violating the people's right to reliable, affordable, and sustainable energy as it continues to implement 33 PSAs voided by the Supreme Court for failure to undergo bidding.

Groups opposing the petition of SMC for price increases said PSAs are not ordinary contracts. They are imbued with public interest.