Power generators may face penalty due to excessive unplanned shutdowns: ERC

MANILA — The Energy Regulator Commission had asked power plants which exceeded the number of allowed unplanned shutdown to explain. 

The ERC issued 24 show cause orders against 13 generation companies in the Visayas and Mindanao area, whose units were identified to have exceeded the allowable Equivalent Unplanned Outage or EOU limits under the ERC’s reliability performance rules.

The orders direct concerned power plants to submit verified explanations regarding their reported non-compliance with applicable reliability performance standards. 

ERC director Sharon Montaner said penalties include monetary fines of up to P200,000 per day or as grave as the revocation of the certificate of compliance of generating plants.

“We don’t want na hindi ka nag-ooperate kasi makaka-contribute ka sa insufficiency ng supply at pagsabay sabay dyan nagkakaroon ng mga alerts, yellow alert o red alerts,” she told ABS-CBN News.

The top 3 power plants with excess Equivalent Unplanned Outages are:

1. Panay 1 DPP unit 2 – 123 days 

2. EDC Mahanagdong GPP – 121 days 

3. Suweco II Villasiga HEPP – 117 days

A power plant is only given around a month per year of unplanned shutdown limit, on top of its annual scheduled maintenance shutdown, depending on the type of technology or fuel it uses. But some of the power plants have already extended its unplanned shutdown or deration for many months.