Power outages hit Metro Cebu anew

CEBU, Philippines -    Power shortage once again hit the Cebu-Negros-Panay grid resulting to rotational power outages yesterday in the cities of Mandaue, Cebu and Naga including the towns of Consolacion and Minglanilla.

   Due to the supply shortage the Visayan Electric Company was forced to implement rotation brownouts for one and a half hour, said spokesperson Ethel Natera.

   Natera said that Cebu Power Thermal I in Naga failed to supply the grid while the Leyte-Cebu submarine cable was overloaded.

   The Cebu Energy Development Corporation Unit I also shut down the other night.

   Mae Melchor, CEDC’s corporate communications officer, said that they are now delaying the scheduled inspection of CEDC Unit II after the shutdown of their first unit the other night.

   Both CEDC power plants have a capacity of 82 megawatt each and are still under testing commissioning.

   In a statement, VECO said the CNP grid remains to be of great concern in the coming months with no available power reserve.

   Whenever a single power plant serving the CNP grid breaks down or is under preventive maintenance, power outages are inevitable especially during peak periods, Natera said.

For VECO, peak periods would mean from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., 1:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. and 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.. During these times, consumption of electricity is at its highest.   (FREEMAN NEWS)