Cause now under probe: Visayas areas lose electricity

CEBU, Philippines - Bohol, Leyte, Samar and some parts of Cebu experienced total blackout after the Visayas grid lost power for almost eight hours from 1:45 a.m. until 9:09 a.m. yesterday due to low voltage that prevented power producers from feeding electricity into the grid.

Betty Martinez, spokesperson of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines-Visayas, yesterday said that their company still has to come up with a comprehensive report as to the cause of this massive blackout.

"Initially, one of our transmission lines near Toledo City was isolated causing a low voltage. This line connects from Cebu to Leyte, who also sense the low voltage situation and also tripped off," Martinez said.

 In a text message, Martinez said that the islands of Bohol, Leyte and Samar experienced total blackout. Cebu only sustained a partial blackout especially in the northern towns.

"Restoration activities immediately started in the affected islands. Investigation and analysis of the root cause of the loss of power is ongoing," Martinez said.

Martinez said that Cebu was first restored, followed by Leyte, Bohol then Samar.

 As a result of the "low voltage", Visayan Electric Company spokesperson Theresa Sederiosa said that they lost about 198 megawatts of their supply, causing blackouts especially in areas in the northern towns that are within their franchise area.

"But all areas within our franchise area that experienced blackout were all restored at 6:23 in the morning," said Sederiosa. She added they immediately worked on restoring power after sourcing power from plants within the island.

 In a separate statement yesterday, KEPCO SPC Power Corp. said their 200mw power plant tripped at 1:45 a.m. due to a grid problem.

"As of now, KSPC engineers are already starting up the plant to continue generation of power for the Visayas grid," their statement further read.

   The Cebu Energy Development Corporation said they too were not able to feed power to the grid not because they have no supply but due to a grid problem.

  CEDC said that their generation capacity is more than 300mw and this was not able to synchronize in the grid due to the said grid problem.

  As system operator of the Philippine power grid and power transmission service provider, NGCP balances the supply and demand of electricity to efficiently serve all of its customers — power generators, private distribution utilities, electric cooperatives, government-owned utilities, eco-zones, industries, as well as directly-connected companies.

Under probe

The Department of Energy in the Visayas said yesterday that the country's grid operator is investigating the real cause of the power outage that hit Central and Eastern Visayas yesterday dawn.

“As of this 9:09 morning (Thursday) tanan nga connection sa transmission line sa NGCP nibalik na 100 percent. And then after that ni-anam-anam na balik ang distribution utilities (sa ilang supply). Nibalik na pud ang planta apil tong Tongonan (power plant),” engineer J. Rey Maleza of DOE Visayas said

Maleza, who is also supervisor of the Energy Industry Management Division, said the interruption could have resulted from a system disturbance.

Reports quoted an NGCP spokesperson as saying that a change of system at the Tongonan Geothermal plant in Tongonan, Leyte, caused the unexpected power loss. This Leyte plant, which supplies electricity to the Visayas, reportedly shut down.

NGCP’s power situation outlook as of 6 a.m. Thursday did not show figures for the Visayas grid.

Although in a Twitter post, the grid operator indicated Visayas had 317 megawatts of gross power reserved for Thursday, as based on data computed as of 10 a.m. of February 18. The outlook, which was subject to change depending on actual power system conditions, also indicated the Visayas grid had a supply of 1,643 MW and a peak demand of 1,374 MW for Thursday.

Maleza also clarified energy shortage did not trigger the power failure, considering that it happened at dawn when electricity demand is low.

“Atong gigamit at that time is base load and we’re even exporting to Luzon,” he told The FREEMAN. Base load power sources are those plants which can generate dependable power to constantly meet demand.

He noted an official incident report as to the blackout's real cause would be released as part of the agency's standard operating procedure. Although electricity supply is enough, the energy official said chances for power interruptions are likely due to circumstances of system failure. —/BRP (FREEMAN)