Rotational brownouts again

CEBU, Philippines – The public will have to bear a one to two-hour rotational brownout again as the Visayan Electric Company (Veco) started implementing this yesterday.

The deficiency in the Cebu-Negros-Panay grid is expected to be experienced until October 31.

Three power plants and the 150-megawatt High Voltage Direct Current (HVDC) are currently out of the grid. The HVDC is the power that links from Luzon to Visayas and was unavailable starting 4:00 a.m. yesterday. The situation would continue up to 5:00 p.m. of Oct. 31 for scheduled maintenance activities.

As of 4:29 p.m. to 5:11p.m. yesterday Veco implemented a brownout at the North Reclamation area in Mandaue City and in the Barangays of Pahina San Nicolas, Duljo Fatima, Mambaling, Poblacion Pardo & Quiot Pardo in Cebu City, due to a power shortage in the grid of 200 megawatts.

Jennifer de Jesus, NGCP head of Public Relations, Corporate Communications said the Palimpinon Geothermal Power Plant 1 and 3 in Leyte were having a shutdown as well as the Energy Development Corporation in Malitbog Unit 2.

NGCP, the operator of t he country's power transmission highway, in a report yesterday stated that for the Visayas power outlook, the capacity is 1,110 megawatts but during peak load, power demand reaches 1,304 megawatts.

There was a power generation deficiency of -154 megawatts (mw) in the morning, -187 mw in the afternoon and -194 in the evening.

Antonio Labios, Department of Energy 7 Director, said that Kepco is already synchronized with the grid and currently has a plant output ranging from 20 megawatts to 25 megawatts.

Two days ago, Kepco contributed 12 megawatts to the grid.

But Labios explained that Kepco plant is still on "test and commissioning stage" and its output will gradually increase until it attains full capacity of 100 megawatts on the January 2011-scheduled commercial operation for its Unit 1.

He added that Kepco's Unit 2 will be on testing and commissioning stage on February 2011, with full commercial operation by May 2011.

The Cebu-Negros-Panay grid has been on red alert for the past two years as it continues to suffer generation deficiency owing to the surge in demand for power. (FREEMAN)