THE POWER crisis in the Visayas is getting worse by the day. The daily rotational brownouts in Cebu, Panay and Negros have become intolerable.
Cursing on social media has become savage. Power distributors in Bacolod City and Negros Occidental have defended themselves, asking the public not to blame them. They say the current situation is truly beyond their control.
Enter the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP). It, too, says the daily yellow and red alerts are beyond its control.
The main cause of the grid crisis, according to NGCP, is the insufficient power supply being fed into its transmission highway.
But why is this so?
FORCED OUTAGE
So, let’s be specific. Again, I got an updated explanation from NGCP. As of September 5, it said eight power plants in the Visayas were under forced outage due to either preventive maintenance or technical trouble. One unit has been down since July, two since June, seven since May, three since 2025, two each since 2024 and 2023, and one since 2021, while 15 others are operating at derated capacities.
Given the current situation, NGCP said 818.9 megawatts (MW) of power have been lost from the grid.
WHY ‘SABAY-SABAY’?
Now, the question is: Why “sabay-sabay”?
Enter the term: power collusion.
If we consult dictionaries or refer to Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools such as ChatGPT, power collusion generally refers to an anticompetitive agreement in which electricity generators or utility companies secretly cooperate to restrict supply, manipulate plant outages or fix prices. Quite understandable, right?
But is this really happening?
Negros Occidental 4th District’s Cong. Jeffrey Ferrer, chairman of the House Committee on Legislative Franchises, is taking steps to investigate the root cause of the problem.
He said he is scheduled to meet with power generators in the Visayas on September 22 to hear their side on the current energy crisis.
Oh, wow, that’s good! I’m optimistic about the outcome.
INDUSTRY DENIALS
Well, despite spending 11 years in the power industry, this is the first time I’ve had to acquaint myself with the term “power collusion.” The term sounds weighty — even profound. So, I did some research.
Historically, there has yet to be a proven case of widespread collusion among power generators in the Philippines. Industry denials, of course, have been firm among power-generating companies. The Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) has conducted several investigations, but these have yielded nothing conclusive.
One alleged case of collusion in the power sector involved the 2013 Malampaya controversy. That power brouhaha was highlighted by the simultaneous and sudden shutdowns of multiple power plants, coinciding with the scheduled maintenance shutdown of the Malampaya natural gas facility in Palawan. The ugly result was a historic spike in electricity prices at the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM).
But the probe came to nothing.
GRID COLLAPSE
Now, let’s move on to a similar situation in the past. From January to March 2024, unscheduled shutdowns of major power plants on Panay Island also contributed to a grid collapse, causing massive brownouts across Panay, Guimaras and Negros. But the probe proved fruitless.
So, here we are again — suffering brownouts from time to time for essentially the same reason: massive shutdowns of power plants. Back then, investigations were initiated in Congress.
Will the proposed probes this time succeed? Let’s see.
UNACCEPTABLE
Personally, my take on this matter is simple. If both the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) had been awake 24/7, this current energy crisis in the Visayas might never have reached this point.
It’s mind-boggling that some power plants in the Visayas have been shutting down for extended periods — some dating back years — and yet the DOE and ERC have apparently failed to prevent the region from reaching this crisis.
Energy Secretary Sharon Garin says the Visayas grid trouble is unacceptable. Oh, really!?
Isn’t it funny? The problem has been occurring since May. But it was declared “unacceptable” only in September?
So, where was DOE between May and August? Asleep at the switch? Gosh!/PN
