Customers help Davao Light avoid rotating brownouts

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MONDAY, 24 SEPTEMBER 2012 18:24 BONG D. FABE / CORRESPONDENT

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY—Thanks to its large institutional customers which use their own power generators during power curtailments, Davao Light and Power Co. (DLP) has so far avoided implementing rotational service interruptions within its franchise.

The National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) has curtailed power supply to Mindanao for as high as 460 megawatts (MW) on August 5. On September 21, the power curtailment for the Mindanao Grid was only 130 MW.

But with the onset of El Niño and the critical power supply situation in Mindanao, DLP believes the NGCP’s power curtailment to the Mindanao grid will go up.

However, DLP’s current setup with its large customers has enabled the company to avoid implementing brownouts. The setup involves institutional customers such as malls to operate their own power generators instead of getting power from the grid. This set-up also enables other customers without generating capacity to utilize the power that would have been consumed by these large customers.

At the peak of the recent power supply shortage in August, the Victoria Plaza, Gaisano JP Laurel and NCCC Ma-a malls, along with Craft Haven International Services Inc. (formerly Unifrutti), C. Alcantara & Sons Plywood Division, Gaisano South Ilustre, Coca-Cola and Legaspi Oil used their own generators.

Two years ago, during the power crisis in 2010, the first five of the above-mentioned companies and the Lapanday Foods Corp., Tadeco, New Asia Oil Inc., Western Feedmill, Forever Richsons Trading, Dole Philippines-Stanfilco, and Waterfront Insular Hotel Davao also generated their own power supply.  At the height of this latest power shortage, some local dailies reported that other areas in Mindanao have experienced 30 minutes to two hours of rotating outages.

“To make up for this lack of power supply, Davao Light is optimizing the use of its contracted energy supply from Hedcor Inc. Sibulan [42 MW] and Talomo [5 MW] hydro-electric power plants, and the oil-fired power barges of Therma Marine Inc. (30 MW). The electric utility’s Bajada Power Plant (40 MW), which is on hot standby, is being operated if in case the power supply from these contracts is not enough,” DLP said in a statement.

The NGCP said that as of Monday, September  24, Mindanao’s system capacity was at 1,149 MW while its system peak was at 1,204 MW resulting to a -55 MW reserve.

Mindanao’s power mix is composed of coal (18.3 percent), diesel (17.29 percent), geothermal (7.94 percent) and hydro (56.47 percent).    source