Power grids on “red alert” after 3 plants shut down

CEBU, Philippines - The Cebu-Negros-Panay power grid went on “red alert” status yesterday and likely for the next three to four days after three power plants supplying the grid were shut down.

Department of Energy-7 Director Antonio Labios said one of the three power plants of Cebu Energy Development Corporation (CEDC) in Toledo City,  stopped operating last May 16 and is expected to be back on Thursday yet.

Both the Leyte Geothermal Power Plant (LGPP) and the Panay Energy Development Corporation (PEDC) shut down last May 18 and are expected to be working again on May 22 and May 25, respectively.

A total of 206 megawatts (86 mw each from CEDC and PEDC and 36mw from LGPP) is currently lacking in the Visayas grid.

Labios said the power plants of both CEDC and PEDC suffered damaged broilers while Unit I of LGPP’s turbine generator needs to be repaired.

In a statement, the Visayan Electric Company said that as a result, their share in shouldering the power shortage is 36mw, which forces the distribution firm to resort to a one-hour rotational brownout, or depending on the available power supply and the consumption of customers at a particular time.

VECO said that despite the situation, its Interruptible Load Program, where businesses offer to use their own generation sets to spare other customers from longer and more frequent brownouts.

“The ILP will contribute approximately 20mw of the load curtailment thereby reducing the power shortage to 16mw,” the statement reads.  

Betty Martinez, National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) communications officer, said they were able to get power supply from Luzon to cover for the lack.

Labios said NGCP was able to get a total of 70mw of power from the High Voltage Direct Line from Luzon.

As posted in its website at 6 a.m. yesterday, NGCP said the CNP grid or the Visayas grid has a system capacity of 1,498 mw but the system peak demand reaches 1,569 mw.

As of 4 p.m. yesterday, the Visayas grid suffered a -21mw deficiency in the morning, -86mw in the afternoon and -71mw in the evening.

NGCP’s Weekly Outlook for Visayas (May 16 to May 22) shows that the Visayas grid will have a deficiency of -83 mw today, -97mw tomorrow and -79mw by Thursday.

NGCP said Cebu has zero power reserves from today until Thursday.

“We are encouraging power consumers to conserve power and resort to energy efficiency. Kung wa gyud gikinahanglan ang pag gamit sa kuryente, ayaw lang sa ninyo gamita (If it is not really need, do not use electricity),” Labios said.

VECO further stated that power consumers can help reduce power usage during peak hours (10am to 6pm), by refraining from using high consumption appliances like refrigerators, air conditioning units, iron and washing machines.  (FREEMAN)