MANILA: The Department of Energy (DOE) and the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) must penalize Panay Energy Development Corporation (PEDC) and the Palm Concepcion Power Corporation (PCPC) over constant power disruptions in Western Visayas.
In a statement Friday, Senator Francis Escudero also wants PEDC and PCPC to explain in detail what actually happened.
‘I want them to explain the unscheduled shutting down of their plants and why it took a longer-than-usual period to bring the power supply back. For PCPC, I cannot understand why it took them four days to resupply power instead of just four hours, which is the usual time to resupply power in cases of maintenance shutdowns,’ he said.
If their explanation is found wanting, Escudero said they should be penalized for the business losses incurred because of the blackouts.
“This is necessary so that other power generation companies or gencos will exercise more care and prudence in the operation of their plants as well as compliance with existing regulations,’
he added.
A thorough investigation, Escudero emphasized, is necessary to avoid similar occurrences in the future and avoid surge in prices of electricity like what previously happened in Metro Manila.
‘Power has three components — generation, transmission and distribution. All three must be looked into in order to have a complete picture and not simply do finger-pointing on how to prevent a similar occurrence from happening again in the future,’ he said.
Meanwhile, Senator Nancy Binay is worried on the repercussions of the power outage on the tourism industry, particularly the hospitality sector and local businesses.
“‘Yung nangyaring blackout sa Western Visayas is a big dent to our country’s development, and can be clearly taken as a sharp reminder na kailangan nating seryosong maghanap ng mga long-term solution para matugunan ang problema sa kuryente (The blackout in Western Visayas is a big dent to our country’s development, and can be clearly taken as a sharp reminder that long-term solusyon is serio
usly needed to address the problem in electricity),” Binay said.
“How do you promote tourism ‘pag may mga ganitong unreliable power supply sa atin (if we have this unreliable power supply)? The sad part, most of the inconveniences are usually experienced at small resorts that have not invested in any alternative power source. Even a 30-minute power outage, is already a nightmare for business. What more if it would take days?” she added.
Binay noted that in the tourism industry alone, as a result of brownouts, the direct and indirect economic repercussions are generally absorbed by the hospitality sector.
She also pointed out that constant power interruptions elevate the prospects of tourists canceling their bookings for the holidays.
As a short-term solution, Binay urged the Department of Tourism (DOT) and the Tourism Infrastructure and Enterprise Zone Authority (TIEZA) to come up with a “whole-of-industry approach” in addressing future prolonged brownouts in tourism destinations.
“Siguro (Maybe), the DO
T and TIEZA can help in providing establishments with power outage business continuity plans as part of the incident response protocols just to keep their operations running,” the lawmaker said.
Binay also asked the DOT to help draft a template for a contingency or continuity plan since most establishments do not have adequate plans to deal with energy- or communications-related failure.
Power was out across the islands of Panay, Guimaras and Negros on Tuesday afternoon due to the tripping of multiple power plants which isolated the three islands from the rest of the Visayas grid.
Some senators said they will file resolutions seeking to investigate the incident.
Source: Philippines News Agency