Business World Online
Posted on 09:06 PM, October 06, 2010
BY MARITES S. VILLAMOR, Visayas Bureau Chief
CEBU CITY -- Power outages hit Cebu and the rest of the Visayas after a transmission line fault tripped off major power generating plants in Cebu at Tuesday dawn.
As of yesterday afternoon, the line fault had been addressed, but the two 82-megawatt (MW) coal plants operated by Cebu Energy Development Corp. (CEDC) and a 50-MW thermal-fired unit of SPC Power Corp. were not fully back online as of press time.
"Firing up these plants has to be done gradually. The first CEDC unit is now supplying us (with 48 MW as of 2 p.m. yesterday) and once this is stabilized, CEDC will fire up the second unit," said Antonio Labios, regional director of the Department of Energy.
The situation is expected to improve when the two Cebu Energy generating units and the SPC plant reach their full capacity to provide nearly 200 MW for the Visayas grid.
The second unit of SPC Power Corp. in Naga, which is under preventive maintenance, is also expected to be back online by Oct. 9, Mr. Labios said.
An advisory the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) sent to the Visayan Electric Co., Inc. (VECO), which serves Metro Cebu, said the shortage yesterday reached 300 MW, or about a fourth of the 1,319-MW peak load in the Visayas and slightly higher than the 280-MW shortage on Tuesday. The Energy department said the shortage went down to 250 MW as of 1 p.m. yesterday.
Not one barangay in Metro Cebu has been spared from rotation brownouts of as long as two hours per area since yesterday.
Some areas experienced two-hour outages twice a day, said Ethel T. Natera, VECO corporate communications manager.
Cebu’s business sector, having acquired generating sets to cope with the yearlong shortage that started in summer last year, was fully prepared for the outages.
"We had already experienced the worst last year. From what we know, this is temporary and the situation will get better," said Eric N. Mendoza, president of the Mandaue Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
"Besides, there are generating sets to power our factories and commercial establishments," he added.
VECO, meanwhile, was able to generate 117 MW from its independent power producers yesterday.
The utility’s interruptible load program, which calls on large power users to de-load from the system and generate their own power, as well as the cooler climate yesterday, also helped bring down electricity demand in Metro Cebu.
VECO is usually asked to de-load up to 60% of the projected shortfall in the grid.
Of the 300-MW shortfall yesterday, VECO’s share was projected to reach 180 MW in the morning. VECO requires over 330 MW daily to serve over 300,000 residential, commercial and industrial customers in Metro Cebu.
Compounding the shortage in the Visayas is the shutdown of various power plants due to preventive maintenance. Among those that are on maintenance shutdown is the Palinpinon Unit 1 in Negros Oriental and the Mahanagdong B plant in Leyte’s geothermal fields, Mr. Labios said.
It is not known yet when these plants will resume operations, he added.
The Visayas islands had a peak load of 1,319 MW yesterday, but available capacity reached only 1,024 MW, the NGCP Web site showed.
The unstable power supply in the Visayas has been cited as one of the reasons for the delay in the implementation of the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market here, amid fears such a situation would result in volatile price spikes.
Power supply is projected to improve once new capacities are synchronized to the grid by the end of this year.
This expectation, in turn, has driven government to try to start the long-delayed commercial WESM operations in the Visayas next month.
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