![[ANALYSIS] Panay blackouts](https://i.headtopics.com/images/2024/3/19/rapplerdotcom/analysis-panay-blackouts-analysis-panay-blackouts-85A79EE06EB4055D5B2D85F3F89BBF1B.webp)
These blame games reflect gross ignorance of the nature of reserves at the policy level where the supply inadequacies and reserve imbalances of the Visayas Grid are due to the lack of resource adequacy assessments
The challenges faced by the energy sector involving electricity outside the three main distribution franchise areas among the largest in Luzon and the two smaller ones based in Cebu and the last in Mindanao concern technical expertise and policy-making competence.
Let us be specific. Policy-wise, both market and ancillary reserves in the Visayas region are concentrated along the eastern Visayan corridor despite the worsening imbalance between supply and demand within the largest islands in the west where a dearth of adequate baseload capacity is aggravated by the presence of an inexperienced distribution utility .
That is the sort of policy reversal that aggravates reserve imbalances where one part of the Visayas is favored over others as the economics of the decision-making surrenders to other non-economic and possibly political albeit influential factors divorced from supply and demand.
Given that a larger Panay power plant was already offline on a scheduled maintenance program – a predetermined condition – Panay’s distribution utility should have implemented load dropping protocols through its own substations. These controls are either automatically switched on or manually activated.
While criticism focused on NGCP’s dividend policies from retained earnings accumulated over the years might be valid, its capital structure and technical partner open to sovereignty debates and the continuing conflicts of interest between its majority stakeholder and the DOE bureaucracy open to controversy, the question of the Panay blackouts is a totally different matter.