Manila Bulletin
by Camcer Ordonez Imam
March 4, 2014
Cagayan De Oro City – National Power Corporation (Napocor) officials belied Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla’s report that a power plant in Lanao del Norte conked out and was the cause of the Mindanao-wide blackout last Thursday, Feb. 27.
Secretary Petilla had told the press the other day that one of the power plants maintained by the Napocor, the Agus 1 in Lanao del Norte, which provides power to one of the major power grids in Mindanao, stopped operations, causing the power outage.
But Napocor spokesman Romero Pacilan said the transmission of power from the Napocor plant was normal at that time. However, the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) transmission system could not take in the energy at that time because of low voltage, he said.
Pacilan said they could not determine why there was “low voltage” in the transmission of the electricity.
This was reinforced by Napocor officials in Iligan City who said that the origin of the power failure that caused a blackout in Mindanao about 3:30 a.m. on Feb. 27, 2014, could not be positively traced.
On the other hand, the Steag State Power Inc. (SPI) situated inside the Phividec Industrial Estate in Villanueva town, Misamis Oriental, said “initial reports indicated that the Mindanao grid systems disturbance was caused by the tripping of several power plants in Mindanao which started from the state-owned Agus 1 in Marawi City.”
Jerome R. Soldevilla, communications officer of SPI, said “Units 1 and 2 of SPI’s Mindanao Coal-Fired Power Plant remain off-line after sustaining partial damage to its turbine generating sets brought about by the reported Mindanao grid systems disturbance on Thursday, 27 February 2014.. Each unit has a net generating capacity of 105 MW.”
Soldevilla said SPI is now fast-tracking a comprehensive inspection and assessment of the turbine-generators.
The inspection takes time as it covers all the essential parts of the turbine generating sets and other major power plant equipment, he said.
Earlier, SPI President and CEO Dr. Bodo Goerlich said the company is doubling its efforts to bring the units back to the Mindanao grid.
SPI’s power plant is Mindanao’s biggest in terms of unit capacity. Since start of its commercial operations in November, 2006, it has delivered more than 10 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity to the Mindanao grid, representing about a fifth of the island’s total electricity supply. SPI is principally owned by Steag GmbH, one of the largest electricity producers in Germany.
It took five hours before power transmission could be restored in Cagayan de Oro City, Davao City, General Santos City, Zamboanga City, Pagadian City, and some municipal towns in Mindanao.
The mysterious blackout, which the NGCP, the power distributor, described as an “unknown transmission disturbance,” has generated a number of speculations.
What’s True State Of Mindanao Power?
In the House of Representatives, the Independent Minority Bloc (IMB) yesterday called on the Aquino government to reveal the true state of power in Mindanao following last week’s region-wide and largely unexplained blackout.
“We call on the government to come out with the true state of the power situation in Mindanao and what, if any, is being done to assure sufficient power supply,” IMB leader and Leyte Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez said in a press conference at the House.
“Billions of pesos are expected to be lost from the power problem. We in the Bloc are wondering why this administration can’t find a viable and lasting solution when this is not new to us,” Romualdez said.
“Since last year, the power crisis in Mindanao has been public knowledge. But apart from a handful of ‘one-time’ remedies, we have yet to hear of a continuous project or effort for sustainable power supply in the region,” he added.
It is “grossly unfair” of the Aquino administration to sweep the Mindanao power crisis under the rug, whereas it has been very aggressive on issues concerning its political enemies.
“We don’t hear anything about the Mindanao power crisis unless something happens like the blackout. But if it’s about opponents of the Aquino Administration, there is always something new in media, no matter how superficial it is,” the Visayas lawmaker said. (With a report from Ellson A. Quismorio) source
