THE incoming chair of the Senate committee on energy said the government must ensure that power supply in the country remains stable to avoid problems that will affect the country's economy.
Senator-elect Sherwin Gatchalian said he will look into the 15 years Electric Power Industry Reform Act (Epira), which was designed to bring down electricity rates and to improve the delivery of power supply to end-users by encouraging greater competition and efficiency in the electricity industry.
He said the government must work double time to ensure that power supply in various parts of the country will not suffer as this will greatly affect the lives of people and the growing economy.
"'Pag manipis ang supply ng kuryente, maraming bagay ang mag sa suffer. This will have a negative impact for our economy and investment," Gatchalian said during a press conference on Tuesday.
As incoming chair of the Senate energy committee, Gatchalian said he will hold dialogues to assess whether Epira has been helpful and if there is the need to make necessary revision.
"We will have to check if there is a need to repeal the EPIRA law and the need to reform the power industry into an industry that will prioritize people's interest by creating the right policies," Gatchalian said.
Gatchalian said a pro people energy law must be taken into consideration as well as the business sector that will be greatly affected by power failure.
"I think there are mitigating measures in Luzon for the next year to come but we have to make a thorough study on how to deal with this problem that is now hitting the areas like Mindanao specifically Zamboanga," Gatchalian said.
The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines recently placed the Luzon grid on Yellow alert because of thin reserves because of outages in several power plants.
The senator said it is imperative for the incoming administration to make a review on various measures that will help in stopping this problem and the possibility of rotational brownouts.
Although reopening the nuclear power plant is an option, Gatchalian said that this is not feasible option just yet for the country because of what happened in Japan.
He added the nuclear option will entail a lot of expertise to implement, very technical and highly regulated. (Sunnex)