A consumer watchdog group is asking the Senate to probe the alleged “gross failure” of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines’ (NGCP) to ensure quality, stable, secured, and affordable supply of electricity, which has adverse effects on the economy.
National Association of Electricity Consumers for Reforms, Inc. (NASECORE) said that in contrast to the Senate’s focus on the Malampaya supply contract, it has seemingly turned a blind eye on NGCP’s shortcomings which were magnified anew after Typhoon Odette in December.
“We are the aggrieved witnesses to the negligence of the NGCP, whose transmission assets easily gave way to its fury, causing widespread blackouts that last for weeks if not months,” read the letter addressed to Senator Sherwin Gatchalian, chair of the Committee on Energy, dated February 10 and signed by Nasecore president Pete Ilagan.
Ilagan said the Senate must “conduct legal action into NGCP’s failure to maintain typhoon and earthquake resilient transmission towers in its area of operation and to secure firm ancillary service procurement agreements”.
The group said NGCP has been “lavished with tens of billions of funds collected from the consumers through the ERC’s (Energy Regulatory Commission) generous rate-setting process since NGCP acquired the assets of TransCo (National Transmission Corporation) in 2009”.
“Sad to say, we are disappointed with the Senate Committee on Energy’s fixation on the Chevron Malampaya deal while giving short shrift to the disaster that is the NGCP, whose negligence has brought suffering to tens of thousands of families and caused losses to industries, big and small, from Leyte to Surigao to Cebu and Palawan. They are your constituents, too,” said Ilagan who is from Eastern Visayas, one of the regions damaged by “Odette”.
The group pointed out that while Malampaya supplies only 30 percent of the Luzon grid energy needs, of which only 50 percent was the subject of the questionable sale, the NGCP service area covers the entire country and its failures have a nationwide impact.
“While the Senate filed both administrative and criminal action before the Ombudsman against DOE (Department of Energy) Secretary (Alfonso) Cusi and other DOE officials for approving the Chevron Philippines – UC Malampaya transaction, the Senate Committee on Energy has swept under the rug NGCP’s failures. Why the focus on Malampaya and not on NGCP?” the letter read.
Meanwhile, the 13.5 million-strong National Center of Electric Cooperatives Consumers Inc. still endorsed Gatchalian’s reelection bid.
Source: Philippines News Agency
