Laban Konsyumer Inc. (LKI) yesterday said government should publicly disclose the maintenance schedule of power plants for accountability.
“The maintenance schedule of the power plants is not commercial and proprietary information. The disclosure of such information promotes accountability and transparency and serves the purpose of checks and balances amongst the stakeholders, regulators and consumers. All types of consumers, whether industrial, commercial and residential can better prepare their operational plans during the period,” said Vic Dimagiba, LKI president.
Dimagiba said such information is only available to members of the Philippine Independent Power Producers Association, the Department of Energy, the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) and the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP).
“We filed a petition in December 2019 with the ERC to release the current three-year maintenance schedule but unfortunately, the Commission had sat on the petition without any action taken,” Dimagiba said in a statement.
He said government must step up its campaign to attract additional power plant investments in the country.
“Government should accept the mea culpa and take full accountability for the failure of a power plant development program and the absence of more power companies, more power plants slashing each other’s throat in competition to provide reliable 24/7 electricity at competitive prices,” Dimagiba stated.
He said customers with their own generator sets should participate in an energy crisis reduction and control by sharing their embedded energy capacities during the summer months by operating their standby generators and facilities.
Various agencies including the ERC, the NGCP, the National Electrification Administration and the Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines have all warned of a possible tight power supply during the summer months in the Luzon Grid.
