Visayas grid short by nearly 200MW a day
Aileen Garcia-Yap and Norman V. Mendoza
Rotation brownouts started yesterday in parts of Metro Cebu and Mactan Island following Saturday’s fire damage in a plant in Naga City.
Outages of one to two hours will continue for about a week with two coal-fired power plants in Naga City out of commission for at least six days.
The Visayas Grid was short by 231 megawatts (MW) as of 6 p.m. yesterday, according to the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) which issues daily and weekly power forecasts.
Demand peaked at 1,548 MW while capacity was only 1,317 MW.
Based on a weekly forecast, the Visayas Grid will fall short of supply by nearly 200 MW a day until Friday.
The situation will improve this weekend, when demand for electricity goes down but will again slip into the red on Monday, when consumption goes up.
One 100-MW coal-fired unit of Kepco-SPC Power Corp. (KSPC) in Naga is tentatively scheduled to be back online on Saturday, June 6.
The second 100-MW unit will remain out of commission for preventive maintenance until June 22.
Both were shut down after fire hit the coal crusher building of the power complex early Saturday.
Engr. Rey Maleza, industry management division supervisor of the Department of Energy (DOE) Visayas field office, said the shortage was caused by the emergency shutdown of the Kepco SPC plant.
Distribution utilities were alerted despite a supply of 130 MW from the Luzon grid.
The Visayan Electric Co., Inc. (Veco), said their manual load dropping share was 63.8 MW in the morning and 33.7 MW in the afternoon.
Theresa Sederiosa, Veco reputation manager, said they asked big power users to use their own generating units under the Interruptible Load Program, which provides incentives to commercial and industrial users that voluntarily use their own generators.
Twenty-eight partner companies under the program could de-load about 60 MW from Veco.
As of 3:56 p.m. yesterday, she said there were no reported power outages within Metro Cebu.
Veco posted a schedule of rotation outages on Facebook and Twitter.
“We did not implement manual load dropping (rotation brownouts) in any part of our franchise area yet because we were able to ask some of the ILP (partners) to use their generators first,” said Sederiosa.
Marco Polo Plaza and Ayala Center Cebu switched to their own generating units yesterday.
CONSERVE POWER
In Mactan, Meco yesterday notified consumers by text and social media to expect rotation brownouts for one to two hours until the weekend.
Meco needs an average of 28 MW a day to light up 32 barangays, including 13 in Cordova town.
Gilbert Pagpobo, Meco general manager, said they lost about 40 percent of their supply because of the Kepco SPC shutdown following the fire.
He said they requested Cebu Energy Development Corp. (CEDC) for extra supply but none was available. CEDC operates a 246-MW coal-fired plant in Toledo City.
“We are still looking for other power sources,” he said.
He advised Mactan consumers to conserve energy by unplugging appliances when not in use and minimizing the use of airconditioners.
He discouraged the use of flat irons during peak hours of 6 a.m. to 9 a.m.
The Mactan Economic Zone (MEZ) and Mactan Cebu International Airport, however, will not be affected as they have their own power supplier.
Lapu-Lapu City Schools Superintendent Eduardo Ompad yesterday called for a meeting of night high school principals to find ways of coping with possible brownouts.
“Our option is to hold make-up classes on Saturday or Sunday if ever night classes are suspended due to brownout,” he said.
REPAIR
Maleza said the supply shortage in the Visayas grid is expected to persist until Kepco SPC gets back online.
The power plant in Naga City supplies electric cooperatives in Negros as well as the Mactan Electric Cooperative (Meco), DOE Visayas director Antonio Labios said.
But its emergency shutdown reduced the capacity of the Visayas grid to cope with a high demand at the start of a working week and opening of classes.
In a statement, the Kepco SPC management said it was doing their best to repair the coal crusher facility in Naga immediately and restore power.
Repair works started right after the fire last Saturday.
“The tentative schedule for unit 1 is on June 6, 2015 and unit 2 will be on June 22, 2015 due to preventive maintenance schedule,” the company said.
Unit 2 of CEDC, which generates 82 MW, is expected to be back on line within the week, according to Maleza.
“Hopefully the grid won’t suffer a long period of shortage with CEDC unit 2 and Kepco SPC unit 1 coming back online soon,” he said.
Based on the NGCP’s weekly outlook for June 2 – 8, the Visayas grid will be short by 190 MW on Tuesday, 193 MW on Wednesday, 196 MW on Thursday, and 189 MW on Friday.
The situation will improve a bit during the weekend. The grid will have very thin reserves of 7 MW on Saturday and 77 MW on Sunday.
Supply will again run short on Monday, when the grid is projected to have a deficiency of 88 MW.
For Cebu, the projected shortage is 152 MW on Tuesday and Wednesday, 160 MW on Thursday, 158 MW on Friday and 60 MW on Monday. Slim reserves of 29 MW on Saturday and 80 MW on Sunday are expected.
Negros will also experience a shortage of 13 MW to 55 MW, except on Sunday when it will have a buffer reserve of 31 MW.
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