MANILA, Philippines — The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) has imposed a penalty totaling P15.5 million on ten generation companies for breaching the maximum yearly outage limit last year.
The commission made the announcement on its website last week.
"We have been on the watch for gencos who are exceeding allowed unplanned outage days," ERC Chairperson and Chief Executive Officer Agnes VST Devanadera said.
"We are constantly monitoring and reviewing the weekly reports being submitted by the gencos in compliance with our directive pertaining to the reliability performance indices and equivalent outage days per year of generating units," she added.
Devanadera said this is one of the mechanisms that ensures that gencos do not "unnecessarily" go on unplanned outages, especially during the summer season which normally sees a surge in power demand and increased use of power reserves.
ERC data obtained by Philstar.com showed that the energy regulator penalized ten gencos which owned 19 power generating units that have exceeded the outage limit in 2021. These ten firms are:
- Southwest Luzon Power Generation Corp.
- TeaM Sual Corp.
- SN Aboitiz Power-Benguet, Inc.
- CBK Power Company Ltd.
- SPC Island power Corp.
- Energy Development Corp.
- Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Corp. or the Malaya power plant's operator: Soosan ENS Co., Ltd Philippines
- SEM Calaca Power Corp.
- SPC Power Corp.
- Panay Power Corp.
Majority or 10 of the generating units are diesel plants; four were coal-fired power plants, while two are hydroelectric units. Meanwhile, ERC pointed out that three of the generating units which went offline for an extended period of time last year, were circulating fluidized bed, geothermal and oil-fired thermal units.
Based on ERC's resolution issued in 2020, the outage limit for an oil-fired power plant is 27.80 days per year. Meanwhile, the allowed outage cap for a pulverized coal-fired power plant is 16.8 days per year.
This year, it is all the more urgent to ensure uninterrupted power supply across the country especially during the dry season, which includes the critical election period in May.