Here come the brownouts again in Davao City

DAVAO CITY – The Davao Light and Power Company (DLPC) issued an advisory to its customers yesterday for possible power interruptions until the end of August due to limited power supply.

“Yesterday, August 25, the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) announced another critical power supply situation in the Mindanao Island. From the Davao Light’s supply contract with the National Power Corporation-Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management (NPC-PSALM) of 272 MW, NPC through the NGCP only allocated 218 MW as of August 25,” the advisory said.

DLPC added that, as per that advisory from NGCP, the reason of the lack of power supply was the emergency shutdown of the various units of the hydro generating plants in Mindanao.

“Along with this is the five-day power supply testing on the grid of the Therma South Inc.’s (TSI) 150-MW coal-fired power plant which started also yesterday, August 25. This test is in preparation of TSI’s commercial operations that will supply additional power to Mindanao including the Davao Light franchise,” the DLPC said.

The company emphasized that, with the lack of power supply and the ongoing load rejection test of the TSI, DLPC “will be constrained to implement rotating power interruptions with a duration of 30 minutes to one hour in areas within its franchise, only if the need arises. In a worst case, the power interruptions may extend up to a maximum of two hours.”

The measure is necessary, DLPC pointed out, to avoid total breakdown of the Mindanao grid which happens when the demand for power is higher than what is being supplied in the grid.