To thrive as a company, corporate leaders must take responsibility for their actions or the lack of it. These highly paid corporate CEOs need to own the consequences of their decisions externally, the things they do and don’t do. Internally, they need to take ownership of their circumstances.

In the three-day blackout that hit Panay Island early this month, all relevant agencies, including regulators, Congressional investigators, and even the Office of the President, have pointed to the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines as responsible for its alleged failure to implement manual load dropping, among several other procedures, to prevent the power failure.

Except, of course, the NGCP, which insists that it is not in its mandate to stabilize the transmission system. Instead, it is only responsible for transmitting power from producers to grid-connected areas nationwide.

In his video message posted on Facebook, President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. described the failure of the NGCP to act during the crucial two-hour window to prevent the system collapse as a “missed opportunity.”

“Regrettably, during this period, NGCP failed to resort to manual load dropping, resulting in the crisis that we are facing now,” the President said in the video.

BBM again reiterated this message to the NGCP when he led the energization of the 450-megawatt Mindanao-Visayas Interconnection Project and called on the transmission service provider to ensure the three-day blackout a day after the New Year will not happen again.

“The power interruption caused P3.8 billion in economic losses in the Province of Iloilo alone, notwithstanding the inconvenience that it brought to the people of Western Visayas,” Marcos said.

“So, let’s move forward with the lessons we have gained from this blackout, ensuring that this massive inconvenience and loss for our people will not occur again. We acknowledge the NGCP’s immense responsibility and role in maintaining the stability of our grid, including the need to ensure the completion of critical interconnection projects and to undertake other necessary activities to support a safe, reliable grid operation,” he said.

Congressional hearing

At the House of Representatives, Alliance of Concerned Teachers representative France Castro said NGCP, including concerned agencies, should take responsibility for the outage. She warned that if steps are not taken to prevent the same scheme from happening, Metro Manila and other parts of the country could suffer the same massive power blackout. It would be disastrous, she said.

Regrettably, during this period, NGCP failed to resort to manual load dropping, resulting in the crisis that we are facing now.

The Department of Energy and the Energy Regulatory Commission hold the NGCP responsible during the hearings.

Indeed, Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas appealed to the Office of the President, DoE, and the ERC to intervene and place the power transmission service provider to own up to the mess. Treñas said his office is contemplating suing the NGCP for the economic damages.

“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,” he said.

In the same proceedings, Castro pointed out the procedures in Luzon, particularly in the Meralco-serviced Metro Manila, to implement Automatic Load Dropping or Manual Load Dropping where there is a generation deficiency to support the grid and prevent a massive blackout.

Interruptible load program

Castro also raised Meralco’s Interruptible Load Program, which augments the grid and ensures the availability of sufficient electricity.

The Meralco ILP is a voluntary, demand-side management program that allows customers to operate their generating sets and collectively reduce electricity drawn from the grid when power interruptions are imminent to ration limited power supply.

Under the program, big institutions, like malls, hotels, etc., have backup generation sets as alternative power sources when demand is high and supply is low to avoid brownouts. This allows Meralco to continue providing power to small businesses and residential users to ensure uninterrupted electricity.

More importantly, Meralco rewards these customers with compensation per kWh of electricity they could contribute during times of low power supply.

Since 2014, ILP in the Meralco franchise area has been implemented 26 times. Since then, the program has spared as many as 1.8 million households from power interruptions.