NGCP blamed for Mindanao’s power woes
AFP FILE PHOTO
DAVAO CITY, Philippines — The head of the Mindanao Business Council is blaming the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines for the February 27 Mindanao-wide blackout that has led to 8-10-hour brownouts in different parts of the island.
MBC chairman Vicente Lao said that the Electric Power Industry Reform Act, or Epira, mandates the the NGCP to provide enough buffer power supply to safeguard the grid from brownouts.
“The NGCP is supposed to manage the Mindanao grid, but with what is happening, it’s obvious that it’s not doing its job,” Lao told reporters here on Monday. NGCP’s failure to prevent the brownouts showed it was “not qualified” and was “incompetent” in managing the Mindanao grid.
“Under the Epira, the operator of a grid… is mandated to contract out enough power to have a standby capacity for use in case of emergencies,” Lao said. “But now, they are getting power from the grid.”
He said under the law, over a hundred megawatts of power should be set aside as buffer stock by a grid operator for use during emergencies.
He said that the Davao Light and Power Corp. used to get enough power to prevent the occurrence of brownouts in Davao City but now, the power company has to implement rotational brownouts because it is getting only 50 per cent of the 275 megawatt it used to get from the NGCP.
Melfrance Capulong, NGCP corporate spokesperson, declined to comment in a telephone interview on Lao’s statement.
Capulong cited, however, the findings of the Department of Energy that attributed the cause of the Mindanao-wide blackout to a reduction in the power generated by the STEAG coal-fired power plant and defective equipment of the government-owned Agus hydropower plant.
Lao said he would give the NGCP a chance to explain its side during a meeting of the Mindanao Power Monitoring Committee some time this week.
Councilor Leonardo Avila, vice chairman of the Davao city council’s committee on energy, said he would raise the issue of the NGCP’s incompetence before the council for appropriate action since Davao City is also badly affected by the brownouts.
“We are concerned about this because we are also being affected by the brownouts, which have been badly affecting businesses,” Avila said.
For the first time since 2010, Davao City is experiencing one-to-two-hour brownouts because of the supply shortfall in the Mindanao grid, while other cities like Zamboanga have to put up with brownouts lasting 6 to 10 hours.
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