2-hour brownouts yesterday: Power and water shortage in Cebu

CEBU, Philippines – Cebuanos suffered not only a lack of power supply yesterday, but also the lack of water.

The reason for such was the rotating brownouts that lasted for two hours within the franchise area of the Visayan Electric Company.

VECO has to once again implement the rotating brownouts due to the lack of supply.

The lack of power also affected the ability of the Metropolitan Cebu Water District to supply water.

The Department of Energy-Region VII is still waiting for the report on the investigation of the National Grid Power Corporation, whose Naga-Sigpit transmission line tripped off at 2:34 a.m. yesterday.

The Naga-Sigpit transmission line was, however, restored at 7:30 a.m. on the same day.

With the unexpected tripping-off of the said transmission line, the two coal-fired power plants of Cebu Energy Development Corporation that have a total combined capacity of 160 megawatts went out from the Cebu-Negros-Panay grid.

As a result, the CNP grid, which already sustained a power supply shortfall for the past several months, suffered an additional shortage of 160 MW.

VECO, which also gets some of its power supply from CEDC, was left with no choice but to resort to rotating brownouts.

VECO spokesperson Ethel Natera said that their power consumers in Metro Cebu and towns as far as Liloan in the North and San Fernando in the South experienced at least two hours of outage.

Mae Melchor, CEDC corporate communication officer, said that CEDC's Unit I went on start-up at 9 a.m.

As of 2 p.n. yesterday, Melchor said more than 20 megawatts were already generated by Unit 1 while Unit 2 is also on start-up.

"The two units of CEDC are expected to be back on line within the day," Melchor said yesterday.

Engr. Rey Maleza, supervisor of DOE-Energy Industry Management Division said that for several months, six power plants that are part of the CNP grid are either undergoing preventive maintenance or repair.

DOE regional director Antonio Labios said that the Cebu Thermal Power Plant 2 in Naga went out from the grid last October 4 due to a condenser trouble.

Labios said that CTTP 2 is expected to be back on line on October 9.

Maleza said that there were no power outages from July to September due to the increase in capacity of CEDC.

"Pagsulod na sa CEDC sa grid, mao to nga wala na tay brownout. Since na-down ang CEDC gahapon kay ni-trip off ang NGCP transmission line, mao nang daku gyud ang brownout karon," Maleza said.

MCWD production head Henry Mejor said that their water pumps that are in various areas around Metro Cebu need electricity to pump water.

Mejor said that since the water interruption is unscheduled, he does not know when the water supply will normalize.

"Depende gyud ni kung kanus-a ma-stabilize ang power. Dili man maka-pump og tubig ang ato-ang mga water pumps kung walay kuryente," Mejor said.

He added that once there is a brownout, it would take at least two hours to build up water pressure, which means the moment power is stabilized, it does not follow that water will automatically come out from the tap. -/NLQ (FREEMAN)