Workers fix a power transmission line near Tagaytay City on January 21, 2020. Jonathan Cellona, ABS-CBN News/file

MANILA — The Philippines' power grid operator said it cannot guarantee that there will be power outages this summer.

The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines said this was despite an earlier assurance from the Department of Energy that based on forecast, there will be no yellow or red alert during the hotter months of the year.

Engineer Vincent Harvey Bernabe, NGCP's central grid's operations manager, said that based on what happened last year, there were several times when plants had unscheduled or unannounced shutdowns that plunged the grid into yellow or red alert. 

Top NGCP official refutes concerns on foreign ownership, control over grid: 'Meron kaming sariling sistema'  

A yellow alert means insufficient reserve of over 600 Mega Watts while a red alert means there is more reserve left that manual load dropping or power interruption is already imminent. 

"Meron tayong mga unplanned forced outages, so ineexpect natin na during summer nandyan sya, pero come summer di na sya available," said Bernabe. 

The DOE earlier said that there is more than 4,000 megawatts of new generation that will boost the supply before the summer season. 

But the NGCP said no one can predict which plants are going to experience emergency shutdowns, which already happened in the past years. 

ARBITRAL RULING

Meanwhile, NGCP Spokesperson Cynthia Alabanza said the recent ruling of an independent international arbitral panel proves that the company's ownership structure conforms with the law.

Alabanza said the decision will put to rest accusation that the 40 percent Chinese ownership in NGCP violates the country's anti-dummy law.  

Maharlika Investment Corp getting 20 pct stake in NGCP 

Synergy Grid & Development Phils., Inc. shared that the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) ruled that NGCP did not violate nationality restrictions under the Philippine Constitution or the Anti-Dummy Law. 

The arbitration panel rejected TransCo and PSALM's claim that NGCP’s prepayment of P57.88 billion in July 2013 was invalid. 

But when asked whether the House of Representatives should stop the probe on NGCP, Alabanza says legislators still have the right to continue the investigation and NGCP will truthfully answer all questions.