Due to lack of power supply: Veco says brownouts to continue

CEBU, Philippines - Power supply interruptions continue to affect the VECO franchise area as the Cebu Negros Panay grid once again experienced deficiency in power supply.

VECO spokesperson Ethel Natera, in press statement, said that this was attributed the non-availability of the Leyte-Luzon HVDC link (transmission line) coupled with the derated or preventive maintenance of power plants in Leyte, Cebu and Bohol .

On the other hand, the Leyte-Luzon link has been under maintenance since October 19 which is the link that allows the CNP grid to draw the excess power from Luzon.

Natera said that as per advice from the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP), the grid has been experiencing power supply shortage of as much as 120 megawatts especially during the afternoon and evening when power usage is at its highest.

With this, VECO was advised to deload as much as 38.9 MW to help ease the situation which it has been implementing through one hour rotation brownouts in its franchise area.

“This situation is expected to continue until the power supply situation normalizes,” Natera added.

With the Leyte-Luzon link maintenance expected to be finished by late this afternoon, the circumstances are expected to improve. By the end of the month or first week of November, the other power plants, which are either derated or under preventive maintenance, are scheduled to operate.

To help ease the problem, VECO’s office in Banilad with a load of about 1.5 MW, also deloaded from the system. It ran its generator starting at about 10 a.m. yesterday.

Natera further said that Interruptible Load Program (ILP), which VECO has been implementing since April of 2009 has been of big help in addressing the power supply problem.

Under this program, big power users under VECO’s franchise area, especially industrial customers, are requested to run their generating units to supply their own power needs, instead of getting power from VECO.

Power which would have been distributed to these customers is routed to other users, especially the households. — Mitchelle L. Palaubsanon/WAB   (FREEMAN NEWS)