BY GEROME DALIPE IV
ILOILO City – A joint complaint will be filed this month by the city and provincial governments of Iloilo against the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) in a bid to recover the damages caused by the four-day blackout that hit Panay Island and the rest of Western Visayas.
In his regular press conference on Monday, Mayor Jerry Treñas said that lawyers from the City Legal Office and the Provincial Legal Office met thrice and are finalizing the joint complaint against NGCP before the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC).
Treñas said they have decided to file the complaint before the ERC, instead in the regular court, considering the huge amount of filing fees when claiming damages.
“While the ERC cannot award damages, it can fine the NGCP of up to P50 million,” said Treñas.
The city government pegged the losses at P1.5 billion while the provincial government lost about P3.5 billion during the four-day power outage.
Provincial Legal Officer Dennis Ventilacion told damage suit they requested from the Department of Energy (DOE) a copy of the Transmission Development Plan (TDP) and will check the latest status of the Cebu-Negros-Panay (CNP) Backbone project.
Ventillacion said they also requested data from the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA), the DOE, and other needed data that were discussed during the Senate inquiry.
The meeting of the city and provincial lawyers from the two local government units was an offshoot of the call of Mayor Treñas to file a class suit after the NGCP issued an advisory warning of an impending brownout before the 2024 Dinagyang Festival.
Treñas said the NGCP lacked the necessary measures to ensure the safety of the transmission lines and to guarantee that Region 6 had sufficient electricity.
To recall, the ERC issued a show-cause order against the NGCP in July 2023 over delays in 37 transmission projects. The ERC said that the NGCP failed to meet its proposed timelines to complete the projects.
The NGCP earlier blamed the power outage on Panay Energy Development Corporation (PEDC) Unit 1, which tripped at around noontime on Jan. 2 due to a boiler feed pump issue.
The Palm Concepcion Power Corporation (PCPC) Unit 1 and PEDC Unit 1 simultaneously tripped because of a grid voltage imbalance.
Unit 1 of PEDC with 83 megawatts (MW) load capacity tripped at 12:06 p.m. on Jan. 2, and after two hours or at 2:19 p.m., PEDC’s Unit 2 with an 83-MW load capacity and the Palm Concepcion Power Corporation (PCPC) with 135-MW followed.
In an earlier statement, NGCP reported that with the tripping of three of the largest power-generating units and the planned maintenance shutdown of PEDC Unit 3 (150 MW), 451 MW, or 68.75% of the total 656 MW in-island generation, was lost to the Panay sub-grid.
Some of the long-delayed transmission projects in the Visayas region include Stages 2 and 3 of the CNP 230 kV Backbone Project, Cebu-Lapu Lapu Transmission Project, Mindanao-Visayas Interconnection Project, Naga (Cebu) Sub-station Upgrading Project, Tagbilaran 69 kV Substation Project, Visayas Voltage Improvement Project.
Treñas said the government lawyers already secured the necessary evidence to support their case, including adverse findings of the ERC, the DOE, and several independent power generators on the China-backed grid operator./PN
