MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Energy (DOE) has launched an investigation into the possible collusion among power generators. Energy Undersecretary Raul Aguilos said the department has come up with intervening activities to offset the scheduled shutdown of the Malampaya natural gas facility. Malampaya had a scheduled annual maintenance from November 11 to December 10. But unplanned power outages of other baseload power plants during the same period resulted in the unprecedented spike in generation cost. "We listed several factors that would spike the generation cost. However, it was found out there were unplanned power outages that was the cause of the sudden, unprecedented increase in the generation cost. In fact, we only anticipated P1.58 per kwh, factoring in the interventions that we would anticipate. However, we were all surprised to hear from Meralco that the increase was about P4.15 per kwh," Aguilos told a House hearing. This was why Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla ordered a probe into the matter. "(Petilla) ordered an initial conduct of investigation to see whether there was indeed some collusion among power suppliers... If we factored in all (interventions), the increase would not be as high as what we have now," Aguilos said. Aguilos said they will also ask the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) and the Philippine Electricity Market Corp. (PEMC) to conduct a parallel investigation. 'Vintage power plants' Meanwhile, Meralco said they undertook several measures to mitigate the impact of the Malampaya shutdown. Meralco chief operating officer Oscar Reyes believes a more long-term solution is needed to stabilize power rates and address the increasing demand which is to increase the capacity of the Luzon grid. "There has been no new major power plant added to Luzon grid since 2000 except for 600-MW of GN Power. Thirteen years na ang nakakalipas mula ng nagdagdag tayo ng power plant. All our power plants in the Luzon grid are vintage, 1990's or earlier. Their reliability and efficiency are not as they were, notwithstanding efforts of generator to rehabilitate and upgrade capabiliity of these plants," Reyes said. "The real answer to mitigating and containing generation cost increases is additional generating capacity. Yun po ang talagang solusyon para ma-ibsan ang pressure sa generation charge. It's additional capacity, additional baseload, additional peaking plants," Reyes added. On Monday, Meralco received approval from the ERC for a staggered billing scheme for the implementation of the P3.44 per kwh increase in the generation charge of Meralco, as a way to ease the impact on consumers. Under the approved scheme, the P3.44 per kwh hike in gen charge will be collected in three installments: P2 per kwh in December; P1 in February and 44 centavos per kwh in March. - ANC