Mindanao reels from 6-hour blackouts

DAVAO CITY, Philippines – Up to six hours of power outages have struck a large part of Mindanao.

The National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) imposed the island-wide power cut following the de-rated capacity of Pulangi and Agus hydropower plants due to low water elevation. 

Electricity supply from the Agus 1 and 2 hydro plants in the Mindanao grid was also cut off after unidentified men bombed two NGCP generation towers in Marawi City.

A power outage occurred in several areas of the Mindanao grid after the bombing toppled towers 19 and 20 on Thursday night, according to the NGCP.

The toppling of the two towers caused a 150-megawatt deficiency as electricity from Agus 1 and 2 was isolated from the entire Mindanao grid.

Restoration work on the two towers is expected to be completed soon.

Police and Army troops are securing the NGCP crew working on the restoration of power.

Customers of Davao Light and Power Co. are experiencing two to three-hour rotating power interruptions after the NGCP imposed a Mindanao-wide outage due to the emergency shutdown of two major power plants in Mindanao.

Since Oct. 29, the NGCP had implemented a Mindanao-wide grid curtailment, according to Davao Light and Power Co.

Customers within the Davao Light franchise had to experience emergency power interruptions of within 30 minutes to one hour due to the power supply shortage.

At around 9 p.m. on Oct. 29, the NGCP activated an under frequency due to the sudden interruption of Agus-Kibawe 138 kV Line after an emergency shutdown of the two plants in Agus complex.

This has resulted in a power interruption in certain areas within the Davao Light franchise.

The de-rated capacity of one of the plants in Agus complex and Pulangi hydroelectric plant, and the NGCP shutdown of Agus-Kibawe line led to the 150 MW grid deficiency in Mindanao.

In effect, Davao Light’s average power supply allocation within the day goes down to 109 MW, much lower than its contracted supply of 273 MW.

Adding other power supply contracts of Davao Light with Hedcor Sibulan and Talomo, Therma Marine Inc. and Therma South Inc. together with the power generated from the Bajada Power Plant and the power saved from activating the Interruptible Load Program, the franchise will have a total average supply of 258 MW.