Enough power in Luzon, but not in other areas

REPRESENTATIVES of the Department of Energy, Grid Management Committee, generation companies and local distribution utilities attend the Visayas leg of the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines’ tabletop blackout simulation drill on April 30 in Cebu City. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

DAVAO CITY, Philippines— Electric consumers in Luzon will continue to enjoy a large power reserve but those in the Visayas and Mindanao are likely to continue suffering from  power shortage, according to the country’s lone transmission company.

The National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) said on its website on Thursday that Luzon’s electric supply was 9,323 megawatts, still higher than the peak demand of 8,654 MW. This means that there is still 669 MW of reserve power on the island.

The Visayas, on the other hand, has zero reserve while Mindanao has a deficit of

91 MW, NGCP said.

The entire Luzon, NGCP said, continues to enjoy an uninterrupted supply of power, except for Pangasinan province, which is suffering from shortage because of maintenance work on the power facilities there.

In Mindanao, many areas continue to suffer from rotating brownouts of up to four hours a day because of shortage in electric supply.

The demand for power in Mindanao was expected to hit 1,182 MW yesterday evening.

In this city alone, the Aboitiz Group-owned Davao Light and Power Co. (DLPC) said that while supply was still lacking, there had been some improvement in the power situation.

DLPC said the duration of rotating brownouts had been reduced from four hours just two weeks ago to an hour.

NGCP said the reason for the improved situation was the resumption of operations of one of Steag State Power Inc.’s (SPI) coal-fired power plants in Misamis Oriental province.

Ross Luga, DLPC communications head, said supply was likely to return to normal  when the repair work on SPI’s second coal-fired unit is finished and the plant starts running again on June 1.

SPI’s two coal-fired units conked out in February.

In Ozamiz City, Misamis Occidental 2 Electric Cooperative Inc. said it commissioned independent power producer King Energy Generation Inc. to supply it with 7 MW of power.

In Digos City, the commissioning of another hydropower plant operated by the company Hedcor Inc. in Santa Cruz town has boosted the supply of power in Davao del Sur and Davao Occidental provinces.

Godofredo Guya, general manager of Davao del Sur Electric Cooperative Inc. (Dasureco), which supplies power to the two provinces, said Hedcor’s hydropower facility Tudaya 2 had started supplying an additional 7 MW.

Dasureco has more than 60,000 consumers in the two provinces. It operated modular generator sets at the height of the shortage. Allan Nawal, Ryan Rosauro, Eldie Aguirre and Orlando Dinoy, Inquirer Mindanao