MANILA, Philippines — The Senate Committee on Energy on Thursday holds a hearing on the recent spate of rotational blackouts in Luzon.
On May 31, the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) raised the red alert warning, meaning there is severe power deficiency that could lead to rotational power interruptions, on the Luzon power grid from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.
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Meanwhile, a yellow alert notice was raised from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. This means there were not enough reserves to cover the largest running generating unit in those hours.
The committee's chairman, Sen. Win Gatchalian, previously said some 390,000 households from 90 barangays in 16 LGUs lost their electricity on June 1. He filed Senate Resolution No. 740 calling for a probe.
Several senators were unable to attend the plenary session on June 2 due to the outages.
In a plenary session held the following day, lawmakers senators noted that the Department of Energy in April assured the Senate that there was no high risk of power shortage supply during the summer.
Sen. Manny Pacquiao in a privilege speech also criticized Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi was in Cebu, presiding over a national council meeting of the ruling PDP-Laban as its vice-chairman. The meeting was opposed by Pacquiao, PDP-Laban acting president, who urged party members not to attend.
Watch the Senate inquiry LIVE, which will start at 9 a.m. on Tuesday, June 10, 2021.