Palace confirms rotating blackouts

MANILA, Philippines - Malacañang confirmed yesterday that rotating blackouts are in the offing, pointing to aging power plants as the culprit.

However, contrary to some reports, the rotating blackouts would not be a daily occurrence, deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said, quoting Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla.

President Aquino had assured the public that there would be no blackouts this year. He clarified that his request for emergency powers from Congress was a last resort in case power plants conk out due to an increase in demand.

“He (Petilla) actually gave the actual hours. There are scheduled shutdowns from what I understand,” Valte told Palace reporters, in effect confirming what has been feared by many that outages may last until June this year.

The Palace official as well belied claims from militant groups that the government has allowed power plants to simultaneously shut down, which would result in power outages.

“We cannot allow a simultaneous maintenance shutdown. That’s why it’s very important that we schedule everything, which is what the DOE (Departnment of Energy) has been doing,” Valte said.

“There are just some instances of unscheduled shutdowns. But the DOE is coordinating to make sure that the problem is addressed as quickly as possible,” she said.

Visayas blackout

The DOE said the root cause of the seven-hour power interruption that hit four provinces in the Visayas region on Thursday is still unknown.

Petilla said a task force, composed of the National Transmission Co. and technical experts from the DOE, is still investigating the matter.

He also said that the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP), the grid operator, is still conducting its own analysis to determine the cause of the blackout.

“DOE notes that the restoration of all lines and loading of the Visayas grid as of 9:09 (a.m. on Thursday) is 100 percent. We await the results of the ongoing NGCP analysis of the root cause of the partial blackout in the Visayas region. A task force has been formed composed of Transco and DOE technical experts to investigate into the matter as well,” Petilla said.

A power interruption plunged central and eastern Visayas and a portion of western Visayas into darkness Thursday morning at 1:45 a.m. Affected areas included Cebu, Bohol, Leyte and Samar islands.

As of 6 a.m. yesterday, the NGCP said the outlook for the Visayas is 1,473 megawatts in capacity, with a system peak demand of 1,389 MW or reserves of 84 MW.