Power stability restored in Visayas

TWO power plants under preventive maintenance are expected to resume operation this week, adding 164 megawatts to the Visayas grid, said Abner Bardoquillo, systems manager of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP).

If the supply is still not enough, the grid could source power from the Luzon grid’s close to 700 megawatt reserve.

“To our constituents, we can say that there is no cause for alarm. But for our part, we just want to ask Cebuanos to conserve energy and slow down on the use of appliances,” said Cebu Gov. Hilario Davide III.

Davide met yesterday with power distributors and officials of the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) at the Capitol to get updates on the earlier 200-megawatt power shortage in the Visayas Grid which supplies power to the provinces of Cebu, Panay, and Negros.

NGCP placed the Visayas Grid on “red alert status” last Monday when power reserves of the grid reached zero.

The Visayas grid has an average capacity of 1,540 megawatts but demand has reached 1,580 megawatts because of the summer heat.

More than half of the available supply or 860 megawatts is allocated for Cebu’s use. But because of the suspended operation of the two power plants, only 570 megawatts is actually sent here.

Bardoquillo said the Cebu Energy Development Corporation (CEDC) plant in Toledo City which had leakage in its broiler area was scheduled to go back online last night. The CEDC plant contributes 82 megawatts to the Visayas Grid.

The Panay Energy Development Corp.(PEDC) power plant which produces 82 megawatts will also resume operations in the next few days.

“No cause for alarm for Cebuanos,” Davide said after the power briefing.

Power conservation

But Cebuanos should not be complacent. He called on consumers to help conserve energy to avoid rotation brownouts.

“We are back. Well, not really to normal, but at least they (power suppliers) assured that there will be no brownouts here in Cebu,” Davide told reporters after the meeting.

Davide said he will be calling for a second meeting with power sector players to discuss long-term planning to make Cebu’s power supply “more stable.”

Joel Bontuyan, ERC Visayas supervising energy regulation officer, is asking more private companies to participate in the Interrruptible Load Program (ILP) to help address power deficit.

Under the ILP, big companies will operate their own generator sets when there is a power shortage in the grid. This would reduce the load on the grid and ease up power interruptions among household users.

Companies that own generator sets are required to register with the ERC in order to participate in the ILP.