The government is considering extending the allowable duration of maintenance shutdowns for power plants to enhance their reliability and efficiency.

Energy Secretary Raphael Perpetuo Lotilla, however, said a deeper study should be made before implementing the plan.

“Because then, they will be able to take a deep dive to inspect the different parts of the plant. So, we’re looking as well into those and it’s not only from a purely punitive standpoint but you see, preventive maintenance is very important.”

At the moment, power plants are given a certain period for repairs during a breakdown no matter how severe, resulting sometimes to haphazard solutions.

Limited ERC power

“Just like in an aircraft, you need to have regular maintenance to be done and enough time to carry out the maintenance,” Lotilla told reporters at the sidelines of a corporate event in Makati City last week.

According to Lotilla, the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) is also currently interested in integrating the heat wave as part of the parameters in deciding the allowable plant maintenance outage days. 

“There are metrics for this but as you know, the existing power of the ERC to impose penalties is limited and therefore, it may not produce the kind of deterrent effect that we would like to have,” Lotilla said.

Presently, power plants are only allowed with limited scheduled maintenance days especially during periods of high temperatures and during elections.

Under current ERC interim rules, pulverized coal plants are allowed for combined forced and unforced unavailable days of 44.7; circulating fluidized bed coal for 32.3 days; combined cycle gas plants at 20.2 days; gas turbine at 29.2 days; diesel at 19 days; geothermal at 19.7 days; hydro at 29.9; oil-fired thermal at 58.6 days and biomass plants at 39.7 days.

If generation companies exceed the said amount of allowed unavailable days, the ERC will issue notices of non-compliance to explain and if they are later on found to be non-compliant, appropriate sanctions and financial penalties may be slapped.

ERC said last January that as of December 2023, it already imposed approximately P60 million in penalties against generation companies for violation of the reliability index.

ERC chairperson Monalisa Dimalanta previously said that amendments to the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001 are necessary for the government to authorize the use of penalties imposed on errant power companies as compensation for consumers affected by power outages.

Without the modification, financial penalties are simply kept in the national treasury.