Power outages hitting Mindanao consumers

Business World Online

Posted on October 19, 2012 07:12:06 PM

SEVERAL CONSUMERS in Mindanao have been suffering from power outages lasting from 30 minutes to four hours, an official said on Friday, a situation that is expected to last until next month due to the scheduled maintenance shutdown of power plants.

"Brownouts in Mindanao range from 30 minutes to maximum four hours. Those who have four-hour brownouts are those electric utilities that were not able to contract with the power barges for their reserved requirements. But the rest are okay," Undersecretary Josefina Patricia M. Asirit said in a press briefing.

In addition to the two units of STEAG Power Inc.’s coal-fired plants that have been undergoing preventive maintenance shutdown since Oct. 8, other units of the Agus hydroelectric power plants are not operating for other reasons, she said.

"There are other units of Agus that are offline. These are Agus 2 unit 2, Agus 5 unit 2, and Agus 6. That is about 107-117 megawatts (MW) installed capacity that’s offline in addition to the already two 105 MW of STEAG," Ms. Asirit further said.

The second unit of Agus 2 is under forced outage since August, the second unit of Agus 5 has an earlier planned shutdown until Nov. 11, while Agus 6 has a technical problem, Ms. Asirit explained.

The Agus 2 hydropower plant is in Lanao del Sur, while Agus 5 and 6 are in Iligan City.

In addition, Ms. Asirit noted the limited output of the Pulangi hydropower plant in Bukidnon due to low water inflow.

"Yesterday [Thursday], it had 114 MW capacity from 255 MW. Pulangi is run-of-the-river hydro so it really depends on the water flow," she said.

The combined output of Agus-Pulangi and STEAG supplies about two-thirds of Mindanao’s power requirement, Ms. Asirit said.

The Department of Energy (DoE), however, said areas with power contracts will enjoy uninterrupted supply.

The areas are under the jurisdiction of the Cagayan Electric Power and Light Co., Inc. (Cepalco), Bukidnon II Electric Cooperative, Misamis Oriental I Electric Cooperative, First Bukidnon Electric Cooperative, Inc., and Zamboanga del Norte Electric Cooperative.

"The private distribution utilities are still okay. Davao, Cepalco and four of our electric cooperatives don’t have curtailment because they are well-contracted and have embedded generation," said Ms. Asirit.

The DoE is hoping that the power situation in Mindanao will ease by Nov. 10, after the completion of STEAG’s preventive maintenance shutdown.

The two units of STEAG’s power plant, which are in Misamis Oriental, have a scheduled power-off from Oct. 6 to 24 and Oct. 9 to Nov. 10 respectively. Ms. Asirit said both units will be shut down from Oct. 29 to Nov. 4.

Mindanao had a 343-MW deficit on Friday, with a peak demand of 1,218 MW against a capacity of only 875 MW, according to the Web site of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines, the private sector operator of the state-owned grid. -- C. A. M. C. Feliciano    source