DOE using AI, data analytics to stop collusion in power market

The Department of Energy (DOE) said Friday it is deploying artificial intelligence and big data to ensure there is no market collusion when power plants simultaneously go offline.

“If you are concerned about the possibilities of collusion to drive prices up, this administration started to commission study using AI and big data analytics to identify such behavior,” Energy Secretary Raphael Lotilla said.

“If the study showed correlation, that is going to be brought to the attention of the Energy Regulatory Commission and the Philippine Competition Commission. The power plants are aware that we are doing that,” Lotilla said.

The energy chief made the statement in the wake of fours day of consecutive red and yellow alerts in the Luzon and Visayas grid due to insufficient generating capacity.

The system operator National Grid Corp. of the Philippines placed the Luzon grid on red alert from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m., 6 p.m. to 10 p.m. and yellow alerts from 12 noon to 3 p.m., 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. to 11 p.m.

NGCP said 19 power plants were on forced outage, while three are running on derated capacities for a total of 2,284.3 megawatts unavailable to the grid.

A red alert status is issued when power supply is insufficient to meet consumer demand and the transmission grid’s regulating requirement. A yellow alert is issued when the operating margin is insufficient to meet the transmission grid’s contingency requirement.

Lotilla said power supply may improve over the weekend as they expect two major power plants to be back online.

“We hope that the other plants remain unaffected and perform to their optimal performance,” he said.

Lotilla also asked for cooperation so that power plants can be built.

“We must encourage construction of new power plants and everyone can help. Some power plants are facing delays because of permits. Oftentimes, there has also been opposition even to RE plants, and in finishing the transmission lines,” Lotilla said.