The Department of Energy (DoE) has been urged to ensure that the maintenance of natural gas plants stays on track and that the scheduled shutdown of these plants is not delayed.

Senate Committee on Energy chairperson Sen. Win Gatchalian made the call on Sunday following the DoE’s announcement that the South Premiere Power Corp. and Excellent Energy Resources, Inc., jointly owned by Meralco PowerGen, San Miguel Global Power, and Aboitiz Power, would shut down the facilities over the weekend.

“We recognize that preventive maintenance is critical to deter unplanned downtime, which adversely affects businesses and inconveniences energy consumers,” he said.

Gatchalian stressed the need for the DoE to closely monitor the energy situation “to ensure that preventive maintenance activities would be completed on time.”

‘We recognize that preventive maintenance is critical to deter unplanned downtime, which adversely affects businesses and inconveniences energy consumers.’

“We are hoping that the DoE would be able to ensure that this activity would not cause undue loss of power,” he said.

He echoed the DoE’s appeal to consumers to make energy efficiency and conservation a regular habit, helping to strengthen the available energy supply and prevent power interruptions.

Gatchalian also stated that these conservation efforts would result in savings for consumers.