Manila: Senator Sherwin Gatchalian on Friday urged the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to investigate recurring forced outages of power plants, saying repeated breakdowns continue to threaten supply and push electricity prices higher. Gatchalian made the call after the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) again placed the Visayas grid under yellow alert on Thursday due to thin reserves.

According to Philippines News Agency, the NGCP reported that 14 power plants have been on forced outage since the start of May. Gatchalian highlighted that these yellow and red alerts are caused by unplanned outages and emphasized the need for the ERC to investigate whether these plants are still complying with government standards, as such occurrences are frequently observed every summer.

Gatchalian stressed the importance of determining whether generation companies are still meeting the ERC's reliability index standards, particularly as outages tend to spike during the dry season when demand is high. He warned that repeated plant breakdowns could again be passed on to consumers through higher electricity bills in June.

The senator noted that the ERC has the authority to stagger or gradually implement electricity price increases. He emphasized the need for stricter monitoring and accountability to prevent recurring yellow and red alerts and to protect consumers from sudden power rate shocks.