Friday, April 8, 2016

Indefinite four-hour brownouts plague Davao Light’s franchise area



By Manuel T. Cayon | Mindanao Bureau Chief April 7, 2016

GENERAL SANTOS CITY—The Davao Light and Power Co. said the up-to-four hours of brownout suddenly imposed on Wednesday would be maintained indefinitely, even if the high-tripped transmission line was fixed immediately.
This was due to the unsuccessful effort of the coal plant here to restart one of its generation units shut down shortly after the 138-kilovolt line of the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) tripped at 2:40 p.m. on Wednesday. Davao Light said on Thursday the duration of the rotating-power interruptions would remain “at a maximum of four hours.”
The Davao Light franchise, covering Davao City and the Davao del Norte areas of Panabo City and the towns  of Braullio Dujali and Carmen, imposed a maximum four hours of brownout after a tree fell on the NGCP line at the Davao-Toril 138-kV transmission line 1 at 2:40 p.m.
NGCP fixed the fault after one hour. The Aboitiz subsidiary Therma South Inc. also shut off its one unit of 150 megawatts (MW) to prevent damage.
Sebastian Lacson, TSI president and COO, said “efforts at restarting the unit have been so far unsuccessful.”
“Today we will investigate further to determine the cause of the inability to get the unit running,” he said in a statement sent to the BusinessMirror.
This was the second emergency shutdown for the coal plant since it was launched in January and put into commercial operation the following month.
Davao Light gets 100 MW from the coal plant in a power contract.

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