Mindanao consumers suffer from brownouts

GENERAL SANTOS CITY — Consumers in the entire Mindanao have been experiencing power interruptions since Thursday night due to deficient power supply from the National Power Corp. (Napocor) and its independent power producers (IPPs).

P.M. Macarambon, Napocor vice president for Mindanao generation, said an emergency power load curtailment is being implemented on the entire island due to the 50-day shutdown of the Agus 4 hydroelectric plant (HEP), the forced outage of power barge (PB) 118 and problems with the Pulangi hydroelectric plant.

The Agus 4 HEP in Balo-I, Lanao del Norte, contributes 158.10 megawatts (MW) to the entire Mindanao power grid.

"This situation will be felt temporarily and intermittently during peak hours until July 6 when Agus 4 is completely repaired," he said.

In a statement, Macarambon said Unit 2 of PB 118 in Maco, Davao Oriental, which also contributes to the entire Mindanao power grid, is on "maintenance shutdown," thus depriving the grid of an additional 50 MW.

He said Agus 4 was shut down to prevent the major plant from breaking down due to leaking draft tubes.

Macarambon said the Mindanao power grid is down to 919 MW compared to the expected peak demand of 1,050 MW, or a deficiency of 131 MW as of May 20.

Because of the situation, Macarambon said the Napocor has advised its Mindanao customers to strictly adhere to their contracted power demand levels to mitigate power curtailment.

To meet Napocor’s contracted power obligations, the Mindanao System Operations Group of the National Transmission Corp. (Transco) initiated a local curtailment scheme last May 19.

"The local curtailment results in sectionalized brownouts that are rotated among the various feeders of distribution utilities and electric cooperatives. This scheme will continue until the power generation capacity returns to a safe level," said Lorrymir Adasa, Transco assistant vice president for Mindanao operations and maintenance.

Manuel Hamoy Jr., department manager of Transco for District 6-Southwestern Mindanao based in this city, said load-shredding or curtailment has been implemented in his area which has six electric cooperatives.

"As a result of these deficiencies, local curtailment or reduction shall be experienced by power consumers between 10 a.m. and 9 p.m. everyday until the Agus 4 hydro power plant is back," he said.