Number of ‘unplanned’ power outages in PH baffles Escudero

MANILA,  Philippines— For years now, the country has been experiencing more unplanned than scheduled power outages as revealed by Senator Francis  Escudero on Tuesday.

During the Senate Committee on Energy’s hearing on the recent power supply crisis, Escudero enumerated the power outages he counted between April 16  and May 6 this year.

READ: More senators seek probe, penalty for ‘unjustified’ power outages

For  April  16,  Escudero  said there were 35 unplanned outages and eight planned outages in Luzon alone while Visayas recorded 48 unplanned outages and 10 in Mindanao.

He said there were also  27 unplanned outages and 18 planned outages on  April 17 and another 26  unscheduled and only seven planned outages on April 18.

On May 6, he said, only six were scheduled but there were 16 forced outages and three went offline for unplanned maintenance for a total of 19 unplanned outages.

“Does this not highlight Director Sharon, Usec Guevarra, the fact that you should monitor the plants more closely because we have more unplanned outages than we do planned outages?”  Escudero then asked.

He was directing his question to Energy Undersecretary Rowena Guevarra  and Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) Director Sharon Montaner.

Unplanned outages mean that power plants shut down their operations without informing the DOE,  the ERC, and the Systems  Operator, the senator explained.

High heat index level

Guevarra tried to explain the situation by pointing to the high heat index level currently being experienced in the country.

“In our first slide, we showed you that this is a very  strange weather that we’re having. The heat index was really very hot and it has affected many of the plants operations,”  she said.

READ: ERC probes outages of some power plants

But  Escudero was not convinced, saying the hot weather conditions should only affect hydropower plants.

“Why all the rest? Why will it affect coal? Why will it affect the wind? Why will it affect solar?” the senator asked.

He then provided more data to show that the hot temperature could not be faulted for the power outages.

“For the period  of 2020 until  2023 in Luzon, there were supposed to be only 594 planned outages. Unplanned outages, including forced and maintenance, 4,683 events of unplanned outages. That’s only Luzon,”  Escudero pointed out.

In Visayas,  he said there were 7,000  recorded unplanned outages and only  94 scheduled outages while  238 unscheduled outages were logged in  Mindanao during the same period.

“So it’s not the heat,”  Escudero said.

He said that since 2020, only 10 percent of the outages were planned, 90 percent were unplanned.

“There must be something wrong. Don’t say they’re all force majeure,” he added.