POWER transmission operator NGCP reiterated on Wednesday that they simply followed protocols set by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) in responding to the multiple plant shutdowns in Panay that led to the Panay subgrid blackout last January 2. 

NGCP, citing its own records and system data, saw no abnormality in system voltage from the time between the shutdown of PEDC 1 at 12:06PM and the subsequent shutdown of PCPC at 2:19PM.

Furthermore, it is explicitly stated in the Philippine Grid Code (PGC), section 6.2.3.4, in instances where there is an unplanned outage of a plant but the system remains stable, manual corrective intervention should not be imposed to anticipate the occurrence of a second event. 

It only means that disengaging loads manually, or disconnecting thousands of 

households from their supply of power, as recommended by the Department of Energy and the Independent Electricity Market Operator of the Philippines (IEMOP), in anticipation of a subsequent grid event, is prohibited under the rules. 

“There was no system indication justifying a manual load drop or disconnecting end-users – households, business, industries – from the system to regulate voltage during the two-hour period. Had we disengaged loads without any trigger from the system, we may have also been questioned for doing so, as this clearly violates the PGC. Our actions at the time of the incident were undertaken within protocols and in compliance with established rules,” NGCP said.

Based on system records, the January 2 incident was due to the unplanned outages of multiple power generators in Panay Island, triggered by the unexpected shutdown of Palm Concepcion Power Corporation (PCPC), a large plant with a capacity of 135MW, and eventually cascaded to other plants in the island. 

They said that while they are ready to transmit power as early as January 2, it took PCPC 59 hours to synchronize back to the grid at 1:33AM on January 5. 

The PCPC  declared stable operations shortly before 1:00 PM the same day, or almost 3 days after it shut down. 

Once PCPC operations stabilized, the supply of power to Panay consumers also stabilized. 

No power supply incidents in Panay have been reported since. 

The NGCP also reiterated that as a highly regulated entity monitored closely by the ERC. 

Likewise they said that they strictly complied with the rules and regulations applicable to the transmission operator since every violation may be penalized by the regulator.