D.O.E. chief does not foresee power issues to affect May 9

by Lenie Lectura - May 3, 2016
http://www.businessmirror.com.ph/d-o-e-chief-does-not-foresee-power-issues-to-affect-may-9/

A UNIT of the 1,200-megawatt (MW) Ilijan power plant in Batangas went offline on Monday, but energy officials said power supply remains normal in Luzon.

“Nag-trip ang unit 2 ng Ilijan Block A. This is 300 MW, but it will come online within the day,” Energy Secretary Zenaida Y. Monsada said.

Block A and B of Ilijan power facility is 600 MW each. Monsada said one unit of Block A suddenly went on forced outage.

“We hope there won’t be any more forced outage until election day,” she said.

During a news briefing, Monsada assured there will be sufficient power reserve for Luzon and the Visayas on May 9. This means brownouts are unlikely to happen, except when a number of power plants suddenly conk out at the same time. The energy chief cited an additional 400 MW of capacity in Luzon on election day. This will come from two gas plants—the 100-MW Avion and the 414-MW San Gabriel—of the Lopez group.

“There is additional capacity, like San Gabriel and Avion. These plants are in the testing and commissioning stages already. During election day, these will be commissioned. Their total capacity will only be at 400 MW for both.”

The Visayas, which experiences peak demand at night, is also out of the woods. Monsada said Luzon can export power to Visayas since both grids are interconnected.

“What we are seeing now is there will be no brownout in Luzon and the Visayas, because their power reserves look good,” Monsada said.

In Mindanao, Monsada said, “There may be areas that will experience rotating brownouts, but we are making sure there is power in all voting centers there on election day until the transmittal of canvass.”