Hope for shorter brownouts in Davao by Sunday fizzles out

DAVAO CITY – Just as when everyone was counting on finding some relief in an additional 105 megawatts of power to shorten the city’s four-to-six-hour brownouts, Steag’s State Power Inc. announced it could not get one of its rehabilitated units back on stream as initially scheduled on Sunday.

“While the repairs and restoration works of Unit 2 is substantially completed, the company needs more time to ensure that the unit is in excellent condition prior to commissioning and synchronization to the Mindanao grid,” SPI power plant manager Dr. Carsten Evers said in a statement.

Art Milan, executive vice president and corporate operating officer of the Davao Light and Power Company (DLPC), told a forum here on Friday the company was looking forward to the reinstatement of the unit as it would provide additional 105 MW to the Mindanao grid. Milan said this would result in shorter brownouts.

“Possibly, if one of the Steag’s units will finally run on Sunday, we might no longer experience brownouts during off peak hours,” said Milan, who spoke at a forum attended by barangay (village) captains, military officers and Mayor Rodrigo Duterte.

He said the city was experiencing a supply shortfall of 113 MW of power, or at least one-third of the 330 MW daily demand. The shortfall, he said, caused the rotating four-to-six-hour brownouts.

DLPC is owned by the Aboitiz group, which operates power generating plants.

This fact raised questions among consumers as other power utilities, which do not have generating capabilities, were brownout-free.

Evers said SPI might finally recommission the comnpany’s Unit 2 on or before May 8 while the target date for restoring Unit 1 is on June 1.

“We apologize for this delay and rest assured that we are doing everything we can to bring the units back to the grid,” Evers said.

The two identical power generation sets of the Mindanao coal-fired power facility, each having some 105 MW capacity, have been undergoing repairs after sustaining damage to their turbine-electric generating sets during the February 24 Mindanao-wide blackout.
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