POWER CUTS TO PERSIST
More than 550 mw from Leyte’s power plants still can’t reach Cebu as a result of the earthquake In Camotes, power interruptions reportedly last 4-5 hours per day; officials ask for help
More than 500 megawatts from Leyte’s power plants can’t reach Cebu after last week’s earthquake affected some of the province’s geothermal power plants, said officials from the Visayan Electric Co. (Veco) yesterday.
To save power, the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) wants power distributors like Veco to conduct rotational brownouts.
In a press conference yesterday, Veco chief operations officer Anton Perdices told reporters that while power supply lines that connect Cebu and Leyte are fine, geothermal power plants in the quake-stricken province have yet to be energized.
Last week, a 6.5 magnitude earthquake struck the province of Leyte, followed by a strong aftershock this week that damaged the plants further.
Geothermal power plants in Leyte produced 557 megawatts for Veco, Perdices said.
The Energy Development Corp. (EDC), who owns the plants, vowed to fix the problem within 10 days starting Thursday.
The earthquake also affected the NGCP’s 350-kilovolt (KV) power line connecting the Visayas and Luzon grids.
Veco’s production was affected by the current downtime of the Visayas and Luzon grids as they are receiving 59 watts from a coal-fire power plant in Batangas.
Veco’s daily production was further affected after they received news that one of the generators of KEPCO- SPC’s power plant in the City of Naga is currently undergoing scheduled preventive maintenance.
KEPCO-SPC’s generator can produce up to 100 kilowatts of power.
With majority of their supply affected by quake, Veco will implement rotational brownouts, as recommended by NGCP, to its consumers.
Perdices said that while there will be rotational brownouts, he assured that it won’t last more than an hour each.
But Perdices clarified that the schedule of the rotational brownouts will be up to NGCP, not Veco.
In its Facebook page, the NGCP announced that it has completed some of its lines in Leyte and will soon provide feedback power to EDC’s geothermal power plants.
“When EDC confirms it is ready to receive feedback power from NGCP, the Upper Mahiao and Malitbog geothermal plants may be energized and ready to supply power after 16-18 hours of preparation, to be counted from the time the feedback power is received,” the NGCP said.
The NGCP is also to set to send transformers from Cebu to Leyte as replacement for those that were damaged during the earthquake.
Juan Miguel Exaltacion, head of Veco’s Systems Operation Department, said that the power deficiency in Cebu reached 155 MW starting last Monday.
Currently, there are 415,000 accounts being serviced by Veco. Veco’s current consumer demand is up to 460 megawatts a day.
Exaltacion said all of their consumers underwent rotational brownouts since last Friday.
Veco officials also thanked some of their clients, particularly large and medium scale companies, who implemented the interruptable load program (ILP), saving 20 megawatts per day.
In Camotes Island, Cebu, an acute power supply shortage has pushed the officials to bring the issue to the National Power Corp. (NPC).
A rotational brownout, occurring four to five hours daily, have left residents demanding action from the Camotes Electric Cooperative (CELCO), which operates the distribution franchise in the town.
Manuel Gonzales Suarez, general manager of Camotes Electric Cooperative, talked with Governor Hilario Davide III on Tuesday about the matter.
Also present were the mayors of the towns in Camotes Island; Aly Arquillano of San Francisco, Erwin Yu of Tudela and Boy Rama of Poro. / JKV, ARNOLD T. TUCONG, MSU-MARAWI INTERN / JOB