Philippine Grid Code strictly followed, NGCP insists

MANILA, Philippines — The National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) maintained that it “simply followed” the protocols set by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) in responding to the multiple plant shutdowns in Panay on Jan. 2 that led to a widespread blackout in Western Visayas.

In a statement, the power transmission operator said that based on its own records and system data, it saw no abnormality in system voltage from the time between the shutdown of Panay Energy Development Corp. 1 (PEDC-1) at 12:06 p.m. and the subsequent shutdown of Palm Concepcion Power Corp. (PCPC) at 2:19 p.m.

Citing Section 6.2.3.4 of the Philippine Grid Code, NGCP said that in instances where there is an unplanned outage of a plant but the system remains stable, manual corrective intervention should not be imposed to anticipate the occurrence of a second event.

NGCP added that disengaging loads manually or disconnecting thousands of households from their supply of power in anticipation of a subsequent grid event is prohibited under the rules.

The Jan. 2 incident, the NGCP reiterated, was due to unplanned outages of multiple power generators in Panay Island, triggered by the unexpected shutdown of PCPC, a large plant with a capacity of 135 megawatts.

This eventually cascaded to other plants on the island, thus leading to the Panay subgrid blackout.

The Department of Energy earlier said the Jan. 2 incident could have been prevented had the NGCP been proactive, citing a two-hour window when the company could have called on distribution utilities and electric cooperatives in Panay to reduce their load to prevent a subsystem-wide collapse.

Senate hearing

Meanwhile, senators yesterday bristled at NGCP’s claim that it fulfilled its mandate of stabilizing the grid during the Jan. 2 incident in Panay that led to a four-day blackout.

During the Senate energy committee’s hearing into the power outage, NGCP OIC-AVP Clark Agustin maintained that they kept the grid stable.

Sen. Raffy Tulfo, who presided over the hearing, slammed the NGCP for failing to do anything during the two-hour period.

Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian added that it was “misleading” for NGCP to say the grid was stable when 300 MW were lost in the grid after six power plants tripped.

Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas yesterday urged senators to seek accountability for the outage that cost the city P500 million in losses per day or a total of P2 billion for the four-day outage.

Iloilo Gov. Arthur Defensor Jr. added that the province “suffered P3.8 billion in damages that translated to economic loss.”

NGCP blamed the outage on the shutdown of the PEDC-1 at 12:06 p.m. followed by the PCPC two hours later, cascading to other power generators and cutting Panay Island and Guimaras from the Visayas grid.

ERC Chair Monalisa Dimalanta said the commission disagreed with NGCP’s view that the situation was still stable during the two-hour period before power plants started tripping.

The ERC has yet to conclude its probe into the incident.

Sen. Risa Hontiveros recalled that the last Senate probe into the previous power outage incident in the country was less than a year old.

“We have not learned,” she said. – Cecilia Suerte Felipe