SENATOR Raffy Tulfo expressed concern upon learning that the rotational brownouts in the islands of Panay and Negros, which started last April 27, could continue in the coming days.

Tulfo, chairperson of the Senate Committee on Energy, was initially informed that said power outages started due to the line fault or tripping in the transmission line of the National Grid Corporation (NGCP), but he said that NGCP is blaming the Central Negros Electric Cooperative (CENECO).

“Nakakalungkot malaman na posible pa ring mapatuloy ang rotational brownout hanggang sa mga susunod na araw sa Panay at Negros,” he said.

“Tinawagan na namin ang DOE (Department of Energy) at ERC (Energy Regulatory Commission) para paimbestigahan ang problema at kung sino talaga ang pinag-ugatan dahil nagtuturuan ang NGCP at CENECO.

“Samantalang tuloy-tuloy ang ginagawa kong monitoring at pakikipag-ugnayan sa NGCP at CENECO hinggil sa sitwasyon at para hanapan na rin ito ng permanenteng solusyon,” he added.

Tulfo said he received information claiming that the cause of the power outages in Panay and Negros was the transmission line of the NGCP.

This prompted him to urgently create an investigation and monitoring team to investigate the problem. Tulfo and his team had a conference call with NGCP to allow them to explain.

The senator said according to the NGCP, the problem is not with them because the tripping or line fault allegedly originated from the line of CENECO, and that there was a domino effect that’s why their line was also affected, thereby causing power outages even in Panay.

The NGCP said in case of a line fault or tripping, there should be protection systems to prevent the fault from spreading.

While NGCP claimed that its protection system worked as intended, Tulfo questioned why Panay was affected even though its electricity was not being supplied by CENECO.

CENECO said there was voltage fluctuation and frequency imbalance in the 69kV line that is under the management of NGCP.

CENECO added that this problem also affected MORE, GUIMELCO, ILECO 1, ILECO 2, ILECO 3, ANTECO, CAPELCO and AKELCO which NGCP already admitted to them last April 28 while giving them warning that there was a short supply in the grid.

CENECO added that all the electric cooperatives in Panay and Negros already issued a unified stand pointing to the NGCP as the root of the problem.

Tulfo stressed that the DOE and ERC need to conduct an in-depth investigation of what really happened and who is at fault to prevent power outages from happening again, not only in Panay and Negros but also in other parts of the country.