National Electrification Administration (NEA) Administrator Emmanuel P. Juaneza, together with other energy officials headed by Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Raphael P.M. Lotilla, attended the Public Hearing of the Senate Committee on Energy on Tuesday, 6 September 2022.

Committee on Energy Chairman Sen. Raffy Tulfo presided the hearing which focused on the issue of recurrent brownouts in Occidental Mindoro. Energy officials were asked about the power supply situation in the province. Currently, Occidental Mindoro is not connected to the Luzon Grid and has only one power supplier, the Occidental Mindoro Consolidated Power Corporation (OMCPC).

Administrator Juaneza explained to the Committee the reason why all the Power Supply Agreements (PSA) in the province were awarded to OMCPC. He said that Occidental Mindoro Electric Cooperative, Inc. (OMECO), adhered to the Competitive Selection Process (CSP) Policy for the three PSAs and OMCPC emerged as the winning bidder of the contracts after satisfying the requirements under the Terms of Reference drafted by OMECO, and reviewed by NEA and DOE.

“OMCPC has been the lowest bidder and has an advantage over the others kasi existing na sila, may power plants na sila. Kapag hindi kasi existing, ‘yung time of delivery of power will take longer,” the NEA Chief said.

The current power demand in Occidental Mindoro is at least 29MW but OMCPC is only supplying 14 to 20MW pending the operation of two other power plants of the corporation due to the non-issuance of Certificate of Compliance by the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC).

In view of this, Sec. Lotilla informed the Committee that the DOE will have a meeting with the concerned agencies to further resolve the power supply problem in the province.