Power outages in 2021 leads to fines for 10 power firms

The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) imposed a penalty amounting to P15.5 million on ten generation companies for exceeding the maximum yearly outage limit in 2021.

“We have been on the watch for gencos who exceed allowed unplanned outage days,” said ERC Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer Agnes VST Devanadera. 

“We are constantly monitoring and reviewing the weekly reports being submitted by the gencos in compliance with our directive pertaining to the reliability performance indices and equivalent outage days per year of generating units,” she added. 

Devanadera said this is one of the mechanisms that ensures that gencos do not “unnecessarily” go on unplanned outages, especially during the summer season which normally sees a surge in power demand and increased use of power reserves.

ERC penalized ten gencos which owned 19 power generating units that have exceeded the outage limit in 2021. These are:

Southwest Luzon Power Generation Corp.; TeaM Sual Corp.; SN Aboitiz Power-Benguet, Inc.; CBK Power Company Ltd.; SPC Island power Corp.; Energy Development Corp.; Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Corp. or the Malaya power plant’s operator: Soosan ENS Co., Ltd Philippines; SEM Calaca Power Corp.; SPC Power Corp.; and Panay Power Corp.

Majority or 10 of the generating units are diesel plants; four were coal-fired power plants, while two are hydroelectric units.

Meanwhile, ERC pointed out that three of the generating units which went offline for an extended period of time last year, were circulating fluidized bed, geothermal and oil-fired thermal units. 

Based on ERC’s resolution issued in 2020, the outage limit for an oil-fired power plant is 27.80 days per year. Meanwhile, the allowed outage cap for a pulverized coal-fired power plant is 16.8 days per year.

This year, it is critical to ensure uninterrupted power supply across the country especially during the summer season particularly during the elections in May.