MORE Power cries foul vs. blackout accusations

More Electric and Power Corp. dismissed the allegations made by ACT Teachers Partylist Representative France Castro blaming the electric distribution utility for the widespread blackout in Panay Island.

In an interview on Friday, MORE POWER President and CEO Roel Castro reiterated that blaming the recent widespread blackout in Panay Island on the power distributor was entirely baseless.

"It's difficult to address the statement of Rep. Castro. In fairness and concerning the Congressman, she doesn't understand the whole system, and it's difficult to respond if their basis is wrong. It was just an accusation without basis," Castro said.

Castro pointed out that the lawmaker was the only one who made such a claim even if both the Department of Energy, or DoE, and the Energy Regulatory Commission, or the ERC, already called on the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines, or NGCP, for accountability.

For Castro, a system disturbance was normal but it should not lead to a collapse and subsequent total blackout.

At noon on 2 January, 83 megawatts, or MW, were lost from the grid system due to a plant shutdown, which he said should have been addressed immediately, but it was followed by six more plant shutdowns.

"Even if there is enough generating capacity, a similar total blackout could happen again if the system operator will not be active or will not be working," Castro added.

Panay is the sixth largest island in the Philippines, comprising the provinces of Aklan, Antique, Capiz, and Iloilo.

On Friday at noon, the NGCP reported that it had fully restored all affected feeders in Panay Island and normalized transmission operations in the area following the synchronization of the 135 MW remaining generating Palm Concepcion Power Corp. unit to the grid.

According to the report, Panay power plants are serving about 369.5 MW, which is augmented by 35.7MW from other sources in the Visayas, making the total load served 419.2MW.