Give DoE, ERC fangs
The reset is the process President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. wants hastened since it would reduce the atrociously huge profit of NGCP for a utility firm.
Text size
Share
Daily TribuneThe reset is the process President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. wants hastened since it would reduce the atrociously huge profit of NGCP for a utility firm.
Share
The Department of Energy and the Energy Regulatory Commission must work in tandem to have security in the power sector, which was proven by the massive electricity outage that hit Western Visayas last week.
The power grid concessionaire National Grid Corp. of the Philippines is pinpointed as the culprit here due mainly to the long-delayed Mindanao-Visayas and Panay-Negros-Cebu electricity network interconnections.
Two Energy secretaries, Alfonso Cusi and Raphael Lotilla, had reminded the concessionaire about its obligations, but the projects remained uncompleted.
Since the country is an archipelago with thousands of islands, creating an electricity backbone that connects all regions is crucial to ensure continuous power supply.
Back in June 2020, Cusi warned about the dire consequences of a delay in the Visayas grid interconnection. The original timetable had a December 2020 deadline, which was moved to April 2021 due to the pandemic. Another schedule was prepared after the health emergency which fixed a December 2022 deadline.
With the strong growth of regions aside from the capital, power supply has to be ramped up and maximizing the use of available electricity in all parts of the country is imperative.
The delay in the project was tolerated by the previous ERC administration under Agnes Devanadera, who proved to be a shrewd political survivor and is now president and CEO of the state-run Clark Development Corporation.
ERC, under the Electric Power Industry Reform Act, or EPIRA, regulates the power sector, which is a provision that NGCP had cited in allowing only an ERC check on its functions.
Regulatory capture during the term of Devanadera was prevalent and resulted in many hanging commitments to the government.
Thus, even when Cusi went after NGCP, the DoE's hands were tied by EPIRA. The situation is far different today as the DoE and the ERC are taking NGCP to task.
When Cusi pressed the need to inspect the power transmission's control centers and how they used the other infrastructure under their control, Devanadera gave a list of excuses for not enforcing its mandate.
"An audit of the NGCP was held in abeyance given some internal supervening events, as well as budgetary constraints that caused the delay of the regulatory reset process, which is the complete review process for the NGCP," Devanadera had written DAILY TRIBUNE when asked then about the ERC's grudgingly slow action.
"To date, the ERC has eight ongoing consultancy projects to review NGCP operations and performance, all aimed at hastening the conduct of a full reset," Devanadera had said.
The reset is the process President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. wants hastened since it would reduce the atrociously huge profit of NGCP for a utility firm.
Another oft-repeated alibi of Devanadera was ERC's "insufficient workforce" to enforce its regulatory functions.
The DoE and the ERC are now moving in concert to compel the completion of the Transmission Development Plan that includes the island interconnection projects.
The ERC, post-Devanadera, issued a show-cause order against the NGCP in July 2023 over delays in 37 transmission projects. The ERC said the NGCP failed to meet its timelines.
Several of the pending issues were the outcrop of Devanadera being coopted during her term as ERC head.
The road to a secure energy future is a compelling government regulatory mechanism to keep private partners in line with the overall objectives.
Reviewing the EPIRA to give implementing and regulatory agencies more teeth in going after delinquencies may just do the trick.
