In a press briefing, Transco president Alan T. Ortiz said the firm’s operational efficiency in all its four regional centers of North Luzon, South Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao registered major improvements in various parameters.
"Overall, Transco achieved a 50-percent reduction in unserved energy (frequency of brownouts) due to the implementation of various operational efficiency measures such as the implementation of steel pole program, better right-of-way management, and more effective maintenance of our transmission facilities," he said.
Though Transco has not yet quantified how much the reduction translates in terms of savings or costs, Ortiz said this brings the company’s performance rating to "very satisfactory" level.
"Converting the first half numerical figures to adjectival rating, Transco got a very satisfactory rating for the first half of 2004," he said. "This significant reduction in unserved energy should translate into higher savings for our customers."
He said they hope to maintain the same level of efficiency for the rest of the year. "All these gains add up to higher grid reliability and the quality of power we deliver to our customers. While we are very happy for our first half performance, we are raising the bar higher for the second half of 2004," he added.
Transco chief operating officer Roque Corpuz said it marked the 26th month that the company did not record any massive power outages or blackouts.
From January to June this year, Transco registered gains in system reliability including a 64.82-percent improvement nationwide in its sustained average interruption frequency index (SAIFI). SAIFI refers to the average number of times that a customer’s power supply is interrupted during a specified time period.
Another reliability index, the sustained average interruption duration index (SAIDI) or the average of interruption duration for customers served during specified time for both transmission and subtransmission lines nationwide, also made dramatic gains.
From a year-ago figure of 13.64 hours, the SAIDI dropped to 5.875 hours or an improvement of 56.93 percent.
Transco also posted an improvement in power quality specifically in its frequency limit compliance (FLC) of 99.956 percent compared to last year’s figure of 99.919 percent, representing an improvement of about four percent. FLC refers to the percentage of time that the system frequency (measured in terms of cycles per second or hertz) is within the allowable limits.