DOE eyes blacklisting erring gencos amid capacity shortages

MANILA, Philippines – The Department of Energy (DOE) will consider a three-strike policy against erring generation companies (gencos) to address sustained capacity shortages that place transmission grids under yellow or red alerts.

The Visayas and Mindanao grids have consistently been on red and yellow alert status since last week “because of major generation outages and limited power transfers from neighboring grids,” Energy Secretary Sharon Garin said in an online briefing Monday.

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Garin said the DOE may blacklist erring generation companies after three violations and deploy battery storage units to boost grid capacity and address inefficiency caused by forced outages.

“This morning there was a public consultation on gencos’ (generation companies) accountability or responsibility na ‘pag tatlo na ang (that once there are already three recorded) violation(s) ng (of) genco — whether it’s submission of reports or outage — three times and with due process, we will recommend the blacklisting of the company,” she added.

Garin said the measure will “actually remove all the red alerts” and reduce incidents of yellow alerts.

Last week, the alert status was traced to unavailability of major coal-fired power plants in both grids such as the Units 1 and 2 of the Therma Visayas Inc., Unit 1of the Cebu Energy Development Corporation, and Unit 2 of the GNPower Kauswagan, which is under maintenance shutdown, and its Unit 2, due to boiler tube leak.

“Today, capacity support for Visayas from the Luzon and Mindanao grids is also limited as Mindanao’s demand is high,” Garin said.

Earlier, Garin said they have sent 175 show-cause orders against gencos to let them explain their violations on reporting requirements, but some remain unanswered to date.

She said DOE teams are “working with system operators and generators to restore available capacity, manage the tight supply situation, and keep electricity flowing across the Visayas.” (PNA)

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