SPC says it can't promise no brownouts during polls

CEBU, Philippines - While power generators in the Visayas have committed that there will be no plant outage and power plant maintenance repair three weeks before and three weeks after the 2010 national and local elections, SPC Power Corporation senior vice president and chief operating officer Antonio Corpuz said they cannot assure that there will be no brownout during the day of the polls itself.

Corpuz suggested to the Commission on Elections to provide generators in all the voting precincts to ensure that the poll automation will not be disturbed in cases of forced outage.

Power plants are normally being repaired four a year to ensure that these are in running condition, says Reinerio Lastimoso, SPC vice president for operations.

Lastimoso said that it would be more expensive if power plants bog down due to lack of maintenance.

He added that insurance companies also require power generators to repair their plants four times a year as part of their agreement.

Corpuz added that power generators already submitted their list to the National Grid Power Corporation of what power plants and when these will be shutdown for maintenance and repair in 2010.

He said their Cebu Thermal Power Plant 1 will be out of service for one month from the Cebu-Negros-Panay grid beginning January 8, 2010.

CTPP 1 has a total net capacity of 50 megawatts. — Mitchelle L. Palaubsanon/BRP   (FREEMAN NEWS)