Mindanao power improves with return of Agus hydropower dams
COTABATO CITY—The National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) on Tuesday said the power situation in Mindanao has improved with the restoration to the Mindanao grid of electricity produced by the Agus 1 and Agus 2 hydropower plants.
The return to the grid of the hydropower supply gave Mindanao an excess of 93 megawatts.
This development came after repair works on bombed Tower No. 25 in Ramain, Lanao del Sur, was completed after the NGCP secured a temporary restraining order from a court against the Sanbitory family.
The Sanbitory family prevented NGCP field personnel from doing repair works on Tower No. 25, which was bombed by still unidentified men on Christmas Eve last year. The family claimed right-of-way issues in preventing rehabilitation works for the toppled structure.
Melfrance Capulong, speaking for the NGCP in southern Mindanao, in a statement said repair works, which started on March 5, was completed nine days later, or on March 14.
She said it sent the 138-kilovolt line from Agus 1 and Agus 2 hydropower plants back to the Mindanao grid.
“The restoration of the facility allows the grid operator to transmit the electricity produced by state-owned Agus 1 and Agus 2 hydropower plants, with a combined installed capacity of 260 MW, to the rest of the Mindanao grid,” a separate NGCP statement said.
“We are very pleased with this development. We have been poised and ready to restore the facility as soon as it was toppled,” Capulong said.
“All we needed was access to the property. With the court-issued injunction, we were given legal cover to access the transmission facilities and begin restoration,” Capulong added.
In 2015, a total of 19 transmission towers were targeted, resulting in 16 toppled or damaged facilities.
As of Tuesday, the Mindanao grid has an available capacity of 1,569 MW while the island’s peak demand is 1,476 MW.
The NGCP reiterates its appeal to the public to help in securing steel towers against saboteurs “for the good of everyone.”
Capulong lauded the initiatives of police authorities in Aleosan, North Cotabato, to fence Tower No. 63 and Tower No. 68 with bamboo poles. Both structures have been bombed in the past.
Senior Insp. Junete Napat, Aleosan town police chief, said his office will fence off all the 17 steel structures in Aleosan town. Edwin O. Fernandez, Inquirer Mindanao
