• GILBERT P. BAYORAN
Senate President Juan Miguel Zubiri yesterday expressed his dismay on the persistent power outages plaguing the province of Western Visayas.
This situation is no longer tolerable, and the Department of Energy, as well as the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP), must urgently address this issue before irreparable damage is done to our communities, Zubiri said in a statement.
Constant power interruptions have widespread effects on our communities, extending beyond mere inconvenience, he added, stressing also they affect not only businesses, livelihood, and the delivery of basic services to the people, but they have dire and far-reaching consequences on the lives of citizens.
In a statement, NGCP said 211.6 megawatts is served by Panay power plants, augmented by 43MW from sources elsewhere in the Visayas, for a total of 247.8MW.
NGCP reiterated that the load restoration will be done conservatively, by matching loads to restored generation, to prevent repeated voltage failure, as it gave assurance of transmitting power once it is available.
It also announced that NGCP implemented emergency load dropping and manual load dropping in Negros and Panay, respectively, the protect the integrity of the grid due to under voltage brought about by the generation deficiency in the grid.
NGCP further said that the grid needs about 300MW to stabilize.
In response to the ongoing power outages in Western Visayas, the Regional Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council has elevated the alert status to blue alert since January 3.
This is a proactive measure to enhance monitoring of the impact caused by the extensive blackout.
A blue alert signifies that half of the personnel are on standby, maintaining a heightened alert status.
In a statement, Zubiri said that the DOE and the NGCP must understand the gravity of this situation and act decisively to resolve the situation, as he demanded transparency in identifying the root causes of these outages and a comprehensive plan of action to resolve it.
Both the DOE and the NGCP need to get to the bottom of these deeply disruptive outages and ensure that power is restored to every household and establishment in Panay Island, Negros Island and Guimaras as soon as possible, he added.
We will not stand idly by while our fellow Filipinos suffer due to the negligence and lack of urgency in addressing this power crisis, Zubiri said, hinting at the need to investigate it.*
