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MANILA - The Department of Energy has proposed the creation of a task force to ensure power facilities are in tip-top shape to avoid technical troubles that recently hit a number of generating plants.
Undersecretary Josefina Patricia M. Asirit said the department is drafting a circular that will impose penalties on companies that fail to maintain their facilities.
"The Energy Regulatory Commission, Grid Management Committee and the DOE are working closely together. We are engaged in a grid reliability task force. So eto yung inspection, then mas may teeth yung kanyang pagsita and pag-penalize sa mga non-compliant generating companies," Asirit said.
At present, the DOE can only submit its findings on the operations of power plants to the ERC, which issues the certificates of compliance of these facilities.
Asirit said the DOE is awaiting comments from the GMC before issuing the grid reliability task force circular.
The GMC is a recommendatory body created by the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001 that monitors generating companies' compliance with the Grid Code, or the standards that govern the operation of their facilities.
Last month, brownouts loomed over Metro Manila after the Sual, Pagbilao and Calaca coal plants, as well as the Tiwi geothermal plant encountered technical difficulties. An outage was averted thanks to the timely operation of other power plants.
The Malampaya platform in offshore Northwest Palawan will shut down from July 13 to 21 for repairs. The facility fuels three large natural gas power plants in Luzon, namely the Sta. Rita, San Lorenzo and Ilijan generating facilities.
While such power facilities are regularly switched off for scheduled maintenance, their unplanned shutdown risks not only outages but also an increase in electricity bills as the grid would have to resort to more expensive oil-based plants.
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