NGCP advises power distribution utilities on possibility of manual load dropping

ILOILO City – This city’s electricity distribution utility (DU) advised consumers to be more efficient in using power and be prepared for possible outages.

MORE Electric and Power Corporation (MORE Power) issued an advisory Thursday morning, Jan. 18, after the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) alerted them of the possibility of a manual load drop ( MLD) if another large power plant in Panay Island trips off.

MLD is carried out when there is insufficient power generation supply due to the unavailability of a power plant at the moment.

“Though this is just a possibility of MLD, we advise our consumers to be more efficient in using electricity and be prepared for a possible outage affecting their area,”

MORE Power said in its advisory.

Unit 3 of Panay Energy Development Corp. ( PEDC) in La Paz district tripped on Wednesday night, Jan. 17. It has a load capacity of 150 megawatts.

What Happens During MLD?

With PEDC’ s Unit 3 unavailable, 121 megawatts were reduced from Panay Island’s grid, leaving a thin power reserve.

To avoid a repeat of the blackout last Jan. 2 to 5, NGCP may implement MLD or reduce the allocated supply to DUs in Panay Island.

The time and amount of load to be reduced to distribution utilities will depend on the NGCP, while the affected feeders will be determined by the distribution utilities, depending on the load and prioritization.

On Wednesday night, NGCP issued an advisory on its Facebook page on the power interruption in Negros and Panay sub-grids at 6:48 p.m. due to the unplanned outage of PEDC Unit 3 at 6:44 p.m.

According to the NGCP, the unresolved internal issues of the remaining major power plants (PEDC Units 1 and 2, and Palm Concepcion Power Corporation) that precipitated the Jan. 2 incident qualify as a significant threat to system security following a credible N-1 event and justify manual intervention by the System Operator NGCP under Philippine Grid Code Section 6.2.3.4.

“To preserve the integrity of the transmission system, NGCP implemented manual load dropping. Power in affected electric cooperatives and distribution utilities has already been restored as of 7:07 p.m.,” said the NGCP.

It added: “However, following Department of Energy and Energy Regulatory Commission instructions, another MLD may be implemented in the event of the tripping of another large plant in the Panay sub-grid.”

NGCP is a privately owned corporation that the national government tasked with operating, maintaining, and developing the country’s state-owned power grid, an interconnected system that transmits gigawatts of power at thousands of volts from where it is made to where it is needed.

Panay News reached out to PEDC, which confirmed that their Unit 3 tripped due to a boiler tube leak.

As of this writing, PEDC continued to inspect and arrest the boiler tube to determine the extent of the leak.

They also cannot ascertain the number of days when Unit 3 will be able to synchronize with the grid.

PEDC’s Unit 3 only came back into operation last Jan. 14 after undergoing maintenance.

Meanwhile, Units 1 and 2 are in normal operation.

Guimaras Electric Cooperative (Guimelco), power distributor in the island province of Guimaras, also informed its consumers of the same.

“Bangod sa pag- trip off sang PEDC Unit3, posiblenga magkulang ang supply nga kinahanglanon sang bugos nga Panay. Gani possible nga mag-implementar ang Guimelco sang manual load dropping ukon rotational power interruption base sa advise sang NGCP kun ingkaso nga may dugang pa nga mga planta nga mag- shutdown,” it announced.

Guimelco clarified that the matter is beyond their control but continues to coordinate with the NGCP on this.

“Gina- abisohan ang tanan nga maghimu sang nagakaigu nga preparasyon ingkaso nga kinahanglan naton mag- MLD,” it added.

In the province of Iloilo, the Iloilo I Electric Cooperative, Inc. (ILECO) said: “Ginapangabay gid nga kuntani wala sang isa sa mga ini (power plants) ang magpalya kag ang PEDC Unit 3 magabalik na sa pagsuplay sang kuryente agud mapasiguro ang bastante nga suplay sang kuryente sa Panay.”

Ang Antique Electric Cooperative, Inc. (ANTECO), Aklan Electric Cooperative, Inc. (AKELCO), and Capiz Electric Cooperative, Inc. (CAPELCO) also shared the official advisory of NGCP through their respective Facebook pages./