Brownouts to continue – Veco

WITH the unavailability of the 400-megawatt (MW) power supply from Leyte because of damaged transmission lines, the Leyte-Panay-Cebu gris has a 160-MW power shortage leading to brownouts starting yesterday.

Visayan Electric Company (Veco) chief operating officer Sebastian Lacson said that of the 160 MW, Veco’s share of the curtailment is 85 MW.

“As of this afternoon, we have had two episodes of rotational brownouts. First was at 10 o’clock in the morning and then the next one was at 1:10 p.m.” Lacson said.

Duration of the rotational brownouts will depend on the time and available supply they have at the time. The 10 a.m brownout yesterday lasted for two hours.

Veco’s peak demand as of 12 noon yesterday was 350 MW but supply was only 310 MW coming from Cebu Energy Development Corporation (70 MW), Cebu Private Power Corporation (60 MW) and from the Visayas grid (180 MW).

Lacson said that they have reactivated their Interruptible Load agreement with 26 customers which is what they used at the height of the power shortage in 2009. The agreement means big companies with generators will utilize these for their power.

“We have 35.67 MW of interruptible load from 26 companies with their generator sets like San Miguel, Innodata, Metro Ayala, Coca-Cola and more,” he said.

About one-third of Veco’s power supply or 150 MW is sourced from Leyte, specifically 120 MW from National Power Corporation (NPC) and 30 MW from Green Core.

In a worst scenario, Lacson said Veco’s share of the curtailment could go as much as 150 MW which could affect 300,000 residential customers at a rough estimate.

In an interview yesterday, National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) corporate communications officer Elmer Cruz said that the underground cable connecting Leyte to Cebu was not damaged.

“The only problem now is the overhead lines which our people are trying to restore in Leyte. The biggest problem we have now that’s limiting our operations is the communication,” said Cruz.

According to Department of Energy 7 Director Antonio Labios, the Visayas grid gets 400 MW of power from Leyte. “Power plants are okay but the problem now is the transmission lines in Leyte,” said Labios.

It is also not possible to import power from Luzon because the transmission goes through Leyte where the transmission problem is.