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Senators grill NGCP over Panay island blackout

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Willard Cheng, ABS-CBN News

<h3>But power grid operator insists it followed protocols </h3>MANILA - Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas expressed anger over the trouble caused by the four-day blackout in his city and the rest of the island of Panay and Guimaras.“I am angry for the suffering of our beloved Ilonggos and the rest of Western Visayas,” Treñas said.“We Ilonggos are known to be sweet or malambing, and loving people, but these characteristics were tested and challenged...Who can still afford to smile, when for the first time, we have to sleep in plazas, or barangay gyms, or the esplanade because of prolonged brownouts turning houses into hot ovens,” he added.<ul class="op-related-articles">	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/business/01/05/24/marcos-orders-swift-reset-of-ngcp-rates-after-blackout">Marcos orders swift reset of NGCP rates after Panay power outage</a></li>	<li><a href="https://news.abs-cbn.com/business/01/04/24/energy-chief-blames-ngcp-for-panay-blackout">Energy chief blames NGCP for Panay blackout</a></li></ul>“We do not deserve this, no one deserves this.”Treñas demanded accountability especially since the region already experienced the same blackout in April.“Iloilo City alone suffered a loss of an estimated 2 billion pesos. Who’s going to pay for this? We are looking for accountabilities,” he said. Iloilo Governor Arthur Defensor said the province is contemplating of taking legal action for damages while Guimaras Governor Joaquin Carlos Nava expressed hope a similar incident won’t happen again.But the National Grid Corporation reiterated it simply followed protocols set the Philippine Grid Code or PGC and that it did not find any abnormality in the system voltage between the time the PEDC power plant shut down at 12:06 p.m. of January 2 and the subsequent shutdown of PCPC power plant at 2:19 p.m.“We followed po the requirements of PGC as nagmamandate sa amin na gawin yun and then we assess the system based nga po sa assessment normal,” said Clark Agustin, NGCP OIC-AVP and head of national system operations.But Senate Energy Committee chair Raffy Tulfo found the response unacceptable and demanded the revocation of the NGCP’s franchise.“Dapat natataranta na kayo. Napakadali sa inyo na magsalita kasi hindi kayo apektado e, wala kayo sa Iloilo. Madali kayong magsatsat dyan,” Tulfo said.According to the Energy Regulatory Commission, no outage report was submitted after the first incident.“Within certain hours po under the Grid Code, actually minutes under the Grid Code, the generators are required to submit outage reports. Ang NGCP po, within 15 minutes of the occurrence of the significant incident dapat din po nagsu-submit sila ng report,” said ERC chair Atty. Monalisa Dimalanta.“Which they did not,” Tulfo said.“For the first incident, wala po kaming nakitang report na sinubmit po nila,” Dimalanta said.“O, so naging pabaya sila dito,” Tulfo said.“Siguro po dahil they are flowing from the appreciation that it was not a significant incident,&quot; Dimalanta replied.&quot;Kasi nga po stable daw, para sa kanila, normal kaya hindi sila nag submit ng report. So maraming mga lapses eh. To think na pangalawang beses na ito. kaya ang sabi ko, this should be grounds para ma terminate ang prangkisa nitong NGCP,&quot; Tulfo said.Senators Risa Hontiveros and Francis Tolentino agreed that NGCP’s franchise should be reviewed if the company is found negligent.For Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, a manual load drop or rotational brownout should have been carried out by the NGCP to reduce electricity demand and prevent the shutdown of other power plants.“Clearly it’s not in a normal state anymore, because there’s already a deficiency… In other words, kanina the Chairman mentioned yung normal state, it’s misleading, because it’s no longer a normal state, deficit na siya eh,” Gatchalian said.The NGCP found no reason to do so, insisting it did not find any abnormality in the system and that it remained stable.The ERC says a system operator can carry out other interventions including re-dispatching a unit and reconfiguring the network.“There are various ways the S.O. can intervene manually for example they can redispatch a unit, they can use voltage or power flow congestion on regulation transformers, they can reconfigure the network, they can issue instructions for manual load dropping or they can actually trip a generating unit,” Dimalanta said. The ERC’s investigation of the incident is ongoing.In a press briefing, the NGCP stressed it undertook steps to address the situation, including coordinating with the power generators.NGCP spokesperson Atty. Cynthia Alabanza also pointed out power was augmented by other parts of the Visayas including an interconnection with Negros.She said the NGCP is investigating the incident as well and is awaiting data from the affected power plants.“Napatunayan ng datos namin, ang range na yan, hindi na breach. SO as far as transmission is concerned, as far as frequency and voltage is concerned, dahil nandoon yan sa range considered normal. Syempre sa ordinaryong tao, ang definition ng normal, kung meron bang nakitang aberya o hindi. Of course hindi ko sasabihin sa inyo na walang aberya kaya nga ang paliwanag namin is nag umpisa doon sa unang incident pero gusto namin ipakita na even after the first incident ng 12:06 p.m., na-manage ng Grid,” Alabanza said.<figure class="op-interactive"><iframe allow="autoplay; fullscreen" frameBorder="0" height="100%" id="ivsplayer01" scrolling="no" src="https://player.ivideosmart.com/ivsplayer/v4/dist/html/iframe-src.html?iframeid=ivsplayer01&amp;key=e8c22c015ca9eafa76f1e3edfa03c603&amp;spid=3001339&amp;vid=2627518" width="100%"></iframe></figure><div class="iwantbar">Watch more News on <a href="https://www.iwanttfc.com/#!/browse/Genres/News/tag_id_genres/id_news" target="_blank">iWantTFC</a></div>

Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas expressed anger over the trouble caused by the four day blackout in his city and the rest of the island of Panay and Guimaras.

Senators grill NGCP over Panay island blackout

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Senators grill NGCP over Panay island blackout

Willard Cheng,

ABS-CBN News

Published January 10, 2024 08:12 PM PHT

|

Updated January 10, 2024 08:41 PM PHT

Read More:

Iloilo City

Panay

Guimaras

ERC

Energy Regulatory Commission

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