NGCP Capable of Transmitting Sufficient Power to Mindanao

Manila Bulletin

By ELLSON A. QUISMORIO

October 6, 2010, 5:36pm

The power outages that continue to hound Mindanao is caused by a nagging supply shortfall on the part of the National Power Corporation (Napocor) and not by a transmission problem.

Thus, claimed National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) spokesperson Cynthia Perez-Alabanza as she reiterated that the company is capable of transmitting sufficient power to the Mindanao grid.

“Official data showing a recurring supply shortfall only goes to show that the root cause of Mindanao’s power outages is the deficiency of generation supply and not a supposed transmission problem,” Alabanza said.

“The combined output of Mindanao power producers is just barely enough to meet the island’s present requirements, but there is an artificial shortage at present because some of these generators or producers sell their output to the NGCP as ancillary services, which fetch higher rates, instead of selling the energy as generation capacity,” she explained.

Data gathered on Friday showed a supply shortfall of 74 megawatts (MW) as total nominated power totaled 1,102 MW (from an installed capacity of 1,813 MW) as against a projected requirement of 1,176 MW.

An actual 1,115 MW were dispatched thus the actual power provided by the grid was 61 MW short of the requirement.

“This means that somebody is not presenting the real power situation in Mindanao, and it is not us,” Alabanza pointed out.

In a meeting with Department of Energy (DoE) Secretary Jose Rene Almendras, the NGCP presented the real power supply situation in Mindanao and cited that data on available energy nominated by Napocor indicates a supply deficiency.

Alabanza said that should Napocor manage to nominate the entire installed capacities of its power plants, NGCP could still manage to transmit them to the Mindanao grid.
“Our lines are more than adequate to handle the current supply and demand traffic,” she said.

Hence, one short-term solution to the current power supply problem in Mindanao is for power generators or producers to make the electricity they produce available as base load supply, added the NGPC spokesperson.