Power outage in Luzon looms

MANILA, Philippines - A power outage in Luzon looms this weekend given the scheduled maintenance shutdown of the 1,200-megawatt Ilijan natural gas power plant in Batangas.

Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho Petilla said if the Calaca coal-fired power plant, which is also on shutdown, does not run by today, Luzon will experience one-hour rotating blackouts that may last from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

“However, this is not because of Calaca. This is because of Ilijan’s pigging process,” Petilla said.

The Ilijan natural gas power plant in Batangas, owned and operated by Kepco Philippines Inc., is on a scheduled plant maintenance to inspect the current state of its pipelines, known as “pigging” process.

Petilla said this is necessary as he acknowledged the need for plant maintenance.

The procedure also intends to eliminate accumulated deposits, which affect the overall productivity of the facility, according to the energy department.

The process will clean the nearly 15-kilometer pipeline of the plant, which originates all the way from the Malampaya platform.

Petilla said the briefing could no longer be rescheduled and that it was necessary to maintain the power facilities to meet the growing power demand in the country.

The Ilijan Plant is one of the three natural gas plants supplying 30 percent to 40 percent of Luzon’s energy requirements.

“We have the equipment ready, so might as well do it as scheduled... we can’t risk resetting the work as there are other power plants that are scheduled for maintenance. Doing so might just aggravate our current energy situation,” Petilla said.

The power situation in Luzon has been tight because of several plant shutdowns.

The National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP), for instance, placed the Luzon grid on red alert for four hours in June due to generation and transmission-related problems. A yellow alert lasted for 27 hours in June, 25 hours in May, eight hours in April and six hours in March.

A red alert means severe power deficiency while a yellow alert means reserves are below the minimum level set by the regulator. Yellow alert is reached when the total reserve is less than the capacity of the largest plant on line.

For the Luzon grid, this is usually equivalent to 647 MW, or one unit of the Sual Power Plant.