By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga

A local power advocate group slammed the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) yesterday over the recent blackouts and rotating power outages experienced in Western Visayas.

Power Watch Negros secretary-general Wennie Sancho said the NGCP should have already learned its lesson from the widespread blackouts experienced in late April of last year.

He said the NGCP should have taken necessary measures to prevent power interruptions from happening again.

According to Sancho, the power outage on January 5 was an ominous New Year greeting for deprived consumers in Panay Island due to NGCP’s inefficiency.

He added that the NGCP failed in its mandate as a system protector because it was not able to avert the system from collapsing.

“What is the plan of NGCP to ensure power security in Western Visayas? What are the measures taken by NGCP to prevent future outages? NGCP should explain this to the consumers,” Sancho said.

Sancho believes that the Congress should revoke NGCP’s franchise since they do not live up to the task of protecting the grid.

Meanwhile, in relation to last week’s power outages, Negros Occidental Governor Eugenio Jose Lacson revealed that the province has a sufficient power supply.

To prevent power outages from happening in Negros Occidental, Lacson said the provincial government, in cooperation with the University of St. La Salle in Bacolod City, will create an energy roadmap, as well as host an energy summit.

Bacolod Mayor Alfredo Benitez also supports Lacson’s plan, as Negros Island currently produces a total of 700 megawatts of power, only having a peak use of 440 megawatts.

“Learning from what happened in Panay, to make sure that it will not happen in Negros Occidental, the roadmap is a strategy on how to have power security in our province,” Lacson said./DGB, WDJ