Davao Light’s power deals shield Davao of brownouts

Business Mirror
WEDNESDAY, 25 JANUARY 2012 18:59 MANUEL T. CAYON / REPORTER


DAVAO CITY—The Davao Light and Power Co. said that its embedded power agreements with two mini-hydro generation plants here and in Davao del Sur helped this country’s third-largest power distributor to offset the load curtailment imposed by the National Grid Corp. of the
Philippines (NGCP) over dwindling power supply.
This meant minimizing the number of brownouts suffered by residents and businesses in the city.


In a statement over the weekend, Davao Light said its embedded power agreements with Hedcor-Sibulan and Hedcor-Talomo, two sister companies in the Aboitiz group of companies, has shielded Davao consumers of expected brownouts that were already being implemented by the other electric distributors and cooperatives in Mindanao.


To bolster its steady power reserve, Davao Light has also began tapping the Therma Marine Inc., the 100-megawatt power barge stationed offshore of Maco town, Compostela Valley. It also placed in “hot standby basis” its diesel-fired plant along Bajada, two kilometers north of downtown.




On Jan. 20, Ross Luga, assistant vice president for communication of Davao Light, said the NGCP issued an advisory that it would “implement a load curtailment of up to 150 MW in the grid in view of the generation deficiency.” He said that Davao Light’s share of the total curtailment is approximately
30 MW.


Luga said that the NGCP had been earlier issuing advisories to the power utilities in the Mindanao grid since the first week of January about the generation deficiency situation in the island.




“However, even with its share in the curtailment, Davao Light customers have not been experiencing rotating brownouts unlike electricity end-users in other parts of Mindanao. This is because Davao Light has contracted power supply agreements [PSA] in anticipation of such curtailment given the projected precarious level of supply and reserve in the grid,” he said.




Luga said the Hedcor-Sibulan and Hedcor-Talomo produce at peak capacities 42.5 MW and 4.5 MW, respectively. Hedcor-Sibulan was commissioned in 2010 and Hedcor-Talomo has been operating for more than 18 years.


“Acting as embedded facilities, these hydro plants feed directly in the distribution network of Davao Light ensuring their availability to supply even in the event the NGCP transmission system is down,” he said.




Davao Light began tapping its TMI agreement of 15 MW contracted on Jan. 17 and has placed on “hot standby basis” the 58-MW rated capacity of the Bunker C-fired fuel power plant in Bajada. The Bajada plant could produce an average of 40 MW on a sustained basis on 24 hours of operation.


Davao Light has 214,636 consumers in the city, and its expansion areas that cover neighboring Panabo City, Carmen and Sto. Tomas towns in Davao del Norte. About 85 percent of its consumers are residential, 1.7 percent are industrial users, and 13.43 percent are commercial users.