Reserve power restored to Visayas grid

VECO WORKERS check up on power lines at the height of a brownout in Mandaue City. TONEE DESPOJO/CEBU DAILY NEWS

CEBU CITY—Power consumers in the Visayas can now heave a sigh of relief.

The National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) said the Visayas grid now has power reserves of 200 megawatts after the three power plants that went on emergency shutdown went back online.

Ma. Rosette Martinez, NGCP Visayas communications officer, said there is now enough power supply to address the 1,500-MW demand in the Visayas composed of Central, Western and Eastern Visayas.

With the power supply stable, it means  there will be no more rotating brownouts for Metro Cebu consumers, said Ian Al-shahawi, systems operation manager of Visayan Electric Co. (Veco), power distributor in Metro Cebu.

Veco implemented rotating brownouts on Tuesday after NGCP asked that it shed off 17 MW due to a shortage in the Visayas grid caused by the shutdown of three power plants that provided at least 200 MW.

The impact of the shortage was cushioned by Veco’s Interruptible Load Program, where businesses opted to use their generators to spare households from the brownouts.

The three power plants that went on emergency shutdown were Cebu Energy Development Corp. (CEDC) in Cebu, Panay Energy Development Corp. (PEDC) in Iloilo and the geothermal power plant of  Energy Development Corp. (EDC) in Tongonan town, Leyte.

CEDC and PEDC are coal power plants.

Of the three,  EDC was the first to go online on Wednesday, restoring its 36-MW power supply to the grid.

CEDC, which supplies 82 MW, went online on Friday night after its boiler was fixed, said Mae Melchor, company spokesperson.

Martinez said PEDC in Iloilo was scheduled to go online on Saturday, supplying 82 MW to the grid.

With the three power plants back online, the Visayas grid will have 1,700 MW, more than the region’s peak power demand of 1,574 MW.