10-hour blackout first: Bohol to get power boost

TAGBILARAN CITY, Philippines — A 10-hour blackout will be implemented in the entire Bohol province on Sunday to pave the way for the “preparatory works for the energization of the Bohol Backbone Transmission Project (BBTP) and various maintenance works.”

The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) scheduled the power interruption to facilitate technical routine in tapping a new line for Bohol at the Corella sub-station. NGCP’s P1.19-billion expansion of (BBTP) has been in preparation for the increasing demand of power supply in the province.

The Ubay-Corella 138-kiloVolt (kV) transmission line and Corella substation project will address the load forecast and meet the Philippine Grid Code’s N-1 contingency requirement as well. The Ubay-Corella line prevents overloading of the two 69-kV lines in Bohol-Ubay-Trinidad and Ubay-Alicia in case of outage in either of these segments.

The new transmission line spans 95 kilometers through the northeast to the southwest area of Bohol. As part of the project, the new Corella Substation houses one 100-megavolt ampere transformer, one 138-kV power circuit breaker and corresponding accessories—to serve as alternative drawdown substation of the Ubay Substation. This will reduce Ubay’s substation’s load to make it the new power delivery point.

Meanwhile, the Bohol Diesel Power Plant of Salcon had bailed Visayas consumers from power interruptions last week as the Visayas grid ran with zero reserve. Dice Arcenal, spokesperson of the Bohol Light Company, Inc. (BLCI) said NGCP was about to resort to manual load dropping when the Visayas ended up with zero reserve.

The power generated by the BDPP came to the rescue through the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) to which it was forwarded and spared the Visayas grid from resorting to manual load dropping.

However, Arcenal advised that from a lower rate reflected in the May billing, the future electric bills might show higher rates, considering that distribution utilities got supply from WESM on top of the contracted sources.

Arcenal said Tagbilaran’s demand used to be 22MW, which dropped after the earthquake and typhoon Yolanda, but gradually increased as the power supply become available and now it is 20MW.

The BDPP which started to become serviceable since January this year can now assure enough reserve for any adjustment in the consumption, because distribution utilities can now get supply from WESM anytime, said Arcenal.

She said BLCI will have to share with BOHECO I and II, since the latter’s hydro-power plants also experienced low generation capacity because of the drought, although the situation gradually returned to normal with the rain showers from time to time. Arcenal assured that Bohol will be spared from the rotating brownouts like those experienced in Mindanao.

BDPP plant manager Arturo Pepito, for his part, said three of four diesel generating units are already serviceable—each generating 4MW. As of now, BDPP generates 12MW for WESM, an assurance also that distribution utilities in Bohol can get from WESM anytime. Once repaired, the fourth diesel power generating unit can add 4MW, to make it 16MW from BDPP.

For the entire Bohol, Leyte supply or the Visayas grid remains the main source to meet the bulk of the demand, Pepito added. (FREEMAN)