Panay grid being strengthened to address blackouts, says DOE

TOO DARK The blackout on March 1 that hit parts of Panay and Negros islands plunges Bacolod City, Negros Occidental’s capital, into darkness, with only lights from vehicles illuminating Santa Clara Avenue. —LEVI TRIO/CONTRIBUTOR

BACOLOD CITY—“Relief from the Panay power situation is less than a month away.”

The Department of Energy (DOE) issued the assurance in a statement on Monday in the wake of the blackout that hit parts of Negros Occidental and Panay Island in the evening of March 1, which left thousands of residents in Western Visayas without electricity for up to six hours.

Panay and Guimaras islands as well as parts of Negros Island also experienced a three-day blackout that started on Jan. 2 due to the tripping of multiple power plants, the same reason that caused Friday’s widespread outage.

According to the DOE, the Panay power grid is expected to be strengthened with the completion by the end of March of both the Cebu-Negros-Panay transmission upgrade and the Palm Concepcion Power Corp’s (PCPC) maintenance shutdown.

The DOE said Panay Island—comprising the provinces of Iloilo, Capiz, Aklan and Antique—was powered by four large coal power plants with a total capacity of 451 megawatts (MW) and nine smaller diesel/bunker and renewables with a total capacity of 220.3 MW.

READ: Blackouts in Panay: NGCP, MORE Electric both to blame, says solon

Currently, one of the large coal power plants, PCPC, is under regular maintenance shutdown until March 30, it said.

Long-term solutions, such as the energization of several renewable and conventional power plants and the completion of transmission projects to support the power generation projects and the growth of the load centers, are in the pipeline, the DOE added.

Conserve energy

“In the meantime, the Department of Energy reiterates the need for cooperation among the generators, distribution utility and the system operator in Panay,” the DOE said.

“The general public is also encouraged to conserve energy while we await the completion of the transmission upgrade and maintenance of PCPC by the end of March,” it added.

The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) said the cause of Friday’s blackout was the tripping off of the Panay Energy Development Corp. 3, the largest power plant in Panay, with a 150-MW capacity.

The NGCP denied that it was caused by its facilities or by the fire in Jaro District in Iloilo City, which was just 15 meters from the NGCP transmission tower.

The blackout that struck at 7 p.m. lasted for about three hours in Bacolod City.

In Iloilo City, Jonathan Cabrera, More Power spokesperson in Iloilo, said they fully restored power in their area at 1 a.m. on Saturday but the restoration was gradual so some areas got their power back earlier. INQ