DOE chief raps NGCP for lack of transparency

MANILA, Philippines – Energy Secretary Jose Rene Almendras berated yesterday the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) for lack of transparency in reporting the true situation of the country’s power transmission system.

“National Grid should exercise transparency regarding the repairs and fulfill their promises to the consumers, especially commitments on restoration of the grid damaged by typhoon Basyang,” Almendras said.

NGCP won the right to manage and operate the country’s power transmission network with its bid of $3.95 billion in 2008. The consortium is led by the group of Henry Sy Jr., eldest son of taipan Henry Sy of the SM group and its technical partner State Grid of China Corp.

Almendras said he has been receiving complaints that NGCP has not been transparent in reporting the power situation in Luzon and Metro Manila.

NGCP on Thursday reported that there will be no more brownouts in Luzon yesterday but early in the day, Almendras said a power plant tripped again and caused a 150 megawatt shortage in the Luzon.

Almendras said he had been personally going to the NGCP office to get the information and yet the company still has not been supplying accurate data.

With this, the energy chief asked the Energy Regulatory Commission, the power sector regulator, to conduct a thorough review of the work commitments of NGCP before granting any recovery costs petition related to typhoon Basyang.

NGCP alleged that it had incurred huge losses due to the massive damage brought about by the typhoon. The damages led to a three to four-day brownouts in the Luzon grid.

“ERC should first look at National Grid’s commitments under its work program, if they have complied with their work commitments,” the energy chief said.

According to Almendras, this lack of transparency in information being given out by NGCP warrants an ERC’s scrutiny.

Specifically, Almendras said the regulatory body should scrutinize the compliance of NGCP to the standards set under the performance-based rate (PBR) regime.

”There are set standards under the PBR, they should have been able to respond appropriately given the supposed the capital they should have spent for keeping their facilities reliable. This is why it is called performance-based. They are given budget under the PBR to meet certain standards,” he said.

Under the PBR, a utility company like NGCP should provide a high level of service because of the rewards and penalties set under the PBR rules.

Almendras pointed out that NGCP is accountable to any information that it would give to the public.

“NGCP is answerable to the public for its failure to provide power customers correct information on the status of transmission repairs,” he said.  –Donnabelle L. Gatdula (The Philippine Star)