A SENATOR on Wednesday reiterated her call for agencies to perform their respective mandates to address the thinning power supply in Luzon, the Philippine’s northern mainland, which may affect the May elections. 

Senator Ana Theresia “Risa” N. Hontiveros-Baraquel, who is running for reelection, said a power disruption may lead to cheating and confusion.

“The integrity of the elections depends significantly on stable and sufficient power supply.” 

“Sufficient reserves should have already been laid beyond the 1,200 MW (megawatts) expected margin by adding additional ancillary service contracts and ensuring that no players will play the market to charge more for the price of electricity,” she added. 

This comes after the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities warned of an impending blackout in the Luzon grid during the second quarter of the year, which could impact voting on May 9 and the vote count in the succeeding days.

Ms. Hontiveros cited a previous Senate hearing where the Department of Energy assured that they had already found solutions to this problem such as firm ancillary services contracts on the part of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines and the prevention of unplanned maintenance shutdown by generation companies. 

The senator also said that recurring power supply problems due to regulatory failures and market abuse should be solved.

“The ERC (Energy Regulation Commission) must have the teeth to hold accountable the power players who have been slipping through the rotational brownout for years,” she said. — Alyssa Nicole O. Tan

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