VISAYAS GRID ON RED ALERT FOR TWO HOURS
The Visayan Electric Co. implemented rotational brownouts in some service areas on Thursday after the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) placed the Visayas grid under red alert from 5:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Queenie Sanchez-Bronce, reputation enhancement manager of the Visayan Electric Company (Veco), said that “Veco had no choice but to implement the rotational brownouts if the NGCP would say that we have to implement them because this is a grid problem.”
Bronce was referring to the NGCP advisory, which placed the Visayas grid under red alert because of a 51 MW power deficiency.
Veco started implementing the rotational brownouts from 6:15 p.m. to 9:15 p.m.
According to the NGCP advisory, the Visayas grid would have a capacity of 1,744 MW, which is 51MW less than the 1,805 MW required for the grid’s peak demand.
“The Visayas grid is on red alert due to generation deficiency resulting from unavailability of some units of earthquake-affected geothermal plants in Leyte and limited capacity of power plants in Negros,” said the NGCP in its advisory.
The NGCP also said that it was working to restore the earthquake-damaged converter station in Ormoc City to allow the import of power from Luzon, which could augment the power supply in the Visayas.
A Veco advisory said that the feeders affected included those from Talisay, Mandaue and Cebu City.
Areas that experienced one hour rotational brownouts included Mohon, Tabunok and Lawaan in Talisay City; Maguikay, Alang-Alang and Cambaro in Mandaue City; and Kasambagan, Lorega San Miguel and Parian in Cebu City.