Napocor assures stable power for polls

The National Power Corp. (Napocor) assured yesterday that the country will have more than enough power supply on the May 10 elections and during the subsequent canvassing of poll results.

In a report to the inter-agency Task Force Halalan 2004, the state-owned power firm said that from May 10-12, Metro Manila and the rest of Luzon will have an available power supply of 6,730 megawatts (MW) per day, more than enough to meet the projected maximum system peak demand of 6,300 MW.

In the Visayas, Napocor’s plants will be able to provide 1,085 MW vis-à-vis the expected demand of 875 MW while in Mindanao, there will be a supply of 1,094 MW to meet the projected demand of 1,056 MW.

Given this supply-demand scenario, reserves will stand at an average of 678 MW per day during the said three-day period. This means that the country will have an excess supply of almost 700 MW after the entire demand would have been served.

Power reserves will be higher on election day itself, reaching a total of 1,804 MW, as the over-all peak demand is projected to be lower on that day. Since May 10 has been declared as a special non-working holiday, the demand for electricity will be lower as most industries and commercial establishments scale down their working hours or stop their operations altogether.

Napocor made the assurance of adequate power supply to allay fears that the elections and the subsequent counting of ballots might be disrupted by power failures.

Apart from ensuring adequate reserves in all the grids, Napocor had also drawn up a number of contingency measures to ensure that the election process remains brownout-free. For instance, it had suspended pre-arranged maintenance work on all power plants from May 7-14 to allow these facilities to continue generating electricity during the crucial days of the poll period. At the same time, Napocor had also ensured that all of its power plants have enough inventory of fuel, and that generation facilities with "quick-start" capabilities will be readily available in the event of an emergency.

Finally, Napocor had deployed back-up operations personnel and additional maintenance crews in its power plants to ensure their smooth operations.