Four Cebu power plants now online

CEBU, Philippines - Power interruptions in Cebu are over, at least for now, as four power plants that shutdown from the Cebu-Negros-Panay grid were back online, making power supply more stable.

Two units of Cebu Energy Development Corporation in Naga City with a combined capacity of 164 megawatts were already synchronized to the grid as well as the Cebu Thermal Power Plant 1 and 2, which has 50 megawatts each.

The two units of CEDC went off from the grid when the transmission line of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines tripped off October 5.

The CTPP Unit 2, meanwhile, went off the grid for several months due to preventive maintenance. CTPP 1 was shutdown October 5 due to some technical problems.

Department of Energy regional director Antonio Labios said CTPP Units 1 and 2 went back online yesterday.

Cebuanos have been experiencing rotational brownouts from Tuesday until Friday last week.

Ethel Natera, spokesperson of the Visayan Electric Company, said that as of yesterday, they did not implement rotational brownouts.

For the past three days VECO, the second largest power distributor in the country, resorted to at least two-hour rotational brownout due to power supply deficiency in the CNP grid.

But Natera said the CEDC has already supplied them 105 megawatts of power yesterday and that they hope this trend will continue.

VECO, which has a total power demand of 270 megawatts during peak period, covers the area of Metro Cebu up to Liloan in the north and San Fernando in the south.

Its franchise service covers about 672 square kilometers with an estimated population of 1.73 million.

Natera said that aside from CEDC, they have a power supply contract with the National Power Corporation for 231 megawatts, with Cebu Power Private Corporation for 60 megawatts, and with East Asia Power Utilities for 10 megawatts.

The Mahanagdong Power Plant in Leyte, which is currently undergoing maintenance for several months, will be back online on October 11. It has a capacity of 60 megawatts.

Another power plant in Leyte, the Palimpinon Geothermal Power Plant 2, is expected to be online on November 9. It has a capacity of 37 megawatts.

Labios said that with the synchronization of these power plants to the grid next week, power deficiency will be greatly reduced.

He said the CNP grid supply could not cope with the demand for the past several years, encouraging Cebuanos to conserve energy to reduce demand for power.

Meanwhile, DOE Secretary Rene Almendras told The FREEMAN that he will meet with officials of NGCP the week to discuss the possibility of deferring the scheduled preventive maintenance of NGCP’s High Voltage Direct Cable.

The HVDC is the Luzon link to the Cebu-Negros-Panay grid that provides 150 megawatts of daily power to Visayas.

Asked whether he is in favor of deferring the maintenance after the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections on October 25, Almendras said: “I think so coz it’s no longer on the list of shutdown power plants.”

Cebu officials of the Commission on Elections expressed concerns that if the maintenance pushes through, power interruptions during the elections are possible.

NGCP has scheduled the HVDC preventive maintenance for October 23 to 31. /LPM (FREEMAN)