Lights back in Mindanao but power execs still in the dark

By Riza T. Olchondra
1:55 am | Saturday, March 1st, 2014
Philippine Daily Inquirer

Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho Petilla. RYAN LEAGOGO INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO

Power was restored in Mindanao on Friday after a massive blackout left millions without electricity for hours, but officials warned of more outages due to aging equipment.

Mindanao, home to about 25 million people, regained power around 12 p.m., 32 hours after lights went out before dawn on Thursday, Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla said.

The suspected cause of the region-wide blackout was equipment failure at a high-voltage switchyard that utility officials said is at least 26 years old.

“These are really old equipment, probably older than you,” Petilla told reporters at a news conference.

The breakdown triggered the automatic shutdown of a nearby government-owned hydropower plant that draws its power from a dam, and unleashed a cascading effect on other power plants across the region, utility officials said.

It was the first time in 12 years that the region had suffered a total outage, though partial outages had occurred in between, Petilla said.

Authorities are now investigating the breakdown, which meant the power plant nearest the original failure had to be temporarily shut down, he added.

Rolling outages

That closure is expected to further degrade the thin generating capacity reserves of the region, which has been grappling with chronic power shortages for years.

Petilla warned of daily rolling outages of up to three hours in the coming months when there is less rainfall to be collected at Mindanao’s government-owned hydroelectric dams.

In Davao City, members of a business group on Friday demanded an explanation for the eight-hour island-wide blackout which they said caused unquantified losses to the local economy.  The lack of explanation from government only heightened people’s uncertainty, the group added.

“Until today we don’t know the cause of the brownout,” Manuel “Bobby” Orig, Aboitiz Power’s first vice president for Mindanao Affairs, complained before Energy Undersecretary Raul Aguilos, who guested at the general membership meeting of the Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industries Inc.

Uncertainty

“We asked the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) and the (Department of Energy or DOE) and they have different answers,” Orig said. “We’d like to suggest that the DOE constitute a unit to find out the cause of the major breakdown and disclose it to the public … to address the immediate need to restore power, stop the uncertainty being felt by the people, and address the need (of) people to know.”

More than 24 hours after it occurred, the NGCP said it was still unable to determine the cause of the massive blackout. “NGCP is still determining the cause and will issue a statement when investigation is completed,” NGCP communications chief Cynthia Alabanza said.

“All NGCP substations connected to backbone lines in Mindanao were connected to the grid as of 12:18 p.m., Feb. 27,” Alabanza said in a text message to the Inquirer.

In a briefing, Petilla said that about 80 to 85 percent of power in the southern island is back online, except for the Steag State Power Inc. (SPI), Mindanao coal-fired power plant in the Phividec Industrial Estate in Villanueva, Misamis Oriental.

The NGCP, which operates the country’s transmission superhighway, has reported that SPI’s Mindanao coal plant was working normally before the system-wide disruption, but had problems getting back online after.

While the coal plant is down, two-hour rotating power outages can be expected in serviceable areas, according to Rolando Bacani, president of the state-run National Transmission Corp. (Transco).  Before the system-wide disruption, the island had one-hour rotating outages.

Collating reports

Petilla said the energy department and Transco are investigating the cause of the disruption and are now collating reports not only from Napocor and the NGCP but also from several power plants that stopped operating in what was termed a “cascading” system-wide disruption.

The management and operation of Transco’s nationwide transmission system has been privatized and turned over to NGCP since 2009 but the ownership of all transmission assets remains with Transco.

An electricity shortage last year forced the NGCP to ration supply in Mindanao that led to daily outages of up to 12 hours.

Asked if heads would roll, the energy secretary said the priority was to get optimal power back before gathering all needed information under a joint probe. “If there is really negligence, then yes. But first Transco and DOE will conduct an investigation,” Petilla said.

Separately and through an advisory, SPI said that Units 1 and 2 of the Mindanao coal plant went offline on Thursday dawn following a reported Mindanao systems disturbance. Initial reports indicated that the Pulangi and Agus hydroplants tripped and the coal plant followed.

Technical problems were detected in the turbine generators, and SPI said it would set a target date for the units’ restoration after technical assessment and evaluation had been completed.

“We have mobilized all our resources to restore the units back online,” said SPI president and CEO Dr. Bodo Goerlich.

SPI’s power plant is currently Mindanao’s most modern and biggest in terms of unit capacity. Principally owned by Steag GmbH, one the largest electricity producers in Germany, SPI is said to have delivered more than 10 billion kWh of electricity to the Mindanao grid since it started operations in November 2006, which represented about a fifth of the island’s total electricity supply.  With reports from Germelina Lacorte, Allan Nawal and Charlie Señase, Inquirer Mindanao; and AFP    source

Backup generators help some areas from power outages

Sunstar Cagayan de OroBy Anjo Bacarisas

Saturday, March 1, 2014

ALTHOUGH daily blackouts are expected in some areas in Mindanao, Cagayan de Oro City and parts of Misamis Oriental are spared from the power interruption because the power utilities in the area have backup generators that could address the low supply of electricity.

Jerome Soldevilla, communications officer of Steag State Power Incorporated (SPI), said Friday that power outages may be felt for maybe around three to four hours per day in most areas in the island.

He added that in areas where the electric cooperatives and utilities have no backup generators the blackouts could linger.

“Cagayan de Oro is somehow spared kay naa siyay embedded capacity. But some parts in Misamis Oriental will be affected by the blackouts—unless the utilities companies and electric cooperatives have embedded generators,” Soldevilla said.

Soldevilla said initial reports indicated that Pulangi and Agus hydropower plants also experienced technical glitches followed by the SPI.

Technical problems detected in turbine generators of Unit 1 and 2 of SPI’s coal-fired power plant in Villanueva, Misamis Oriental started Thursday dawn to 9:30 in the morning.

In a press statement, Soldevilla said each unit that went down has a capacity to generate electricity of up to 105 megawatts (MW).

The SPI is presently conducting a thorough investigation and inspection of its units and other power plant systems.

“Technical problems were detected in the turbine generators,” Soldevilla said, as SPI is working on further assessments.

At presstime, the target date of the restoration of the erroneous units is yet to be known after SPI’s technical assessment and evaluation is done.

Working hard

Dr. Bodo Goerlich, SPI president, said Steag is working religiously to restore its facilities so it could feed power back to the grid.

He said SPI is using all its resources to restore the units to working condition.

SPI’s power plant by far is the most modern and biggest power producer in Mindanao in terms of ‘unit capacity.’

“Since start of its commercial operations in November 2006, it has delivered more than 10B kilowatts of electricity to the Mindanao grid,” the statement read.

Soldevilla said SPI power plant contributes a fifth of Mindanao’s electrical supply.

The SPI power plant through the years sustained a high availability performance of more than 90 percent making it one of the most reliable power producers in the Philippines.

SPI is owned by Steag GmbH which is one of the largest producers of electricity in Germany.   source

Sanctions for Meralco if found overcharging

Manila Times.net

March 1, 2014 12:10 am

by Joel M. Sy Egco Senior Reporter

Demonstrators protesting Meralco’s rate increase make noise with pans and cans outside the utility company’s headquarters on Ortigas Avenue. photo by Mike De Juan

MALACAÑANG on Friday said power utility Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) has been asked to clarify computations of its latest bills and may face ‘punitive action’ if found overcharging the public.

Deputy Presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte told reporters in a briefing the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) has ordered the company “to clarify the confusion among the public as to the difference between the amount due, as well as the total amount due.”

“I would deem it good to mention at this point that the ERC has asked them to explain, and let’s wait for the response, as well as the corresponding action on the ERC on the issue whether or not they will be receiving any punitive action because of the latest billing statement,” Valte said.

Citing an update from the ERC, Valte said Meralco officials were summoned to a meeting on Thursday with the Consumer Protection Group (CPG) headed by Undersecretary Victorio Dimaguiba.

The Meralco executives said subscribers need not pay “the amount described as ‘deferred’ pending resolution of the SC TRO [Supreme Court’s temporary restraining order],” adding, “please pay in accordance with the SC TRO.”

Valte said Meralco was told to launch an information campaign to clarify the matter.

“These amounts apparently were included in the billing for purposes of being transparent to its subscribers who are affected by the pending resolution of the Supreme Court,” she added.

The CPG will find out if the power distributor is complying with its commitment, Valte said.

The ERC, on the other hand, has asked company officials to explain in five days the new electric billing format.

On Tuesday, former Rep. Teodoro Casino of Bayan Muna assailed Meralco for trying to collect its controversial power rate hike despite a restraining order from the Supreme Court.

Casino said the power firm tried to collect the first tranche of its record P4.15 per kilowatt-hour increase by passing it off as “balance from previous billing.”

“In my monthly bill dated February 13, 2014 there was a ‘balance from previous billing’ of P173.70 which, although described as ‘deferred, pending resolution of the SC temporary restraining order,’ was added to my total current amount of P2,786.86 making my total amount due P2,960.56,” he said.

“When I inquired about this with Meralco’s customer service call center, I was advised to ‘ignore’ the total amount due of P2,960.56 and just pay the total current amount,” he added.

The ERC is in the best position to determine if there has been any violation by Meralco, Valte said.

“Perhaps, we’ll get a better sense of it from the ERC after Meralco has filed the answer that they are required to file with the ERC,” she added.    source

Mindanao outage traced to power shortfall, plant tripping

Manila Times.net

March 1, 2014 12:02 am

by Ritchie Horario Reporter and Rose de la Cruz Chief of Reporters

WITH power supply in the Mindanao grid already fragile and inadequate, the tripping of the 80-MW Agus I caused an island-wide outage that government said it has already resolved as of early morning on Friday.

Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla called an emergency meeting of the power suppliers in Mindanao yesterday and said initial investigation showed that a circuit breaker opened at the 80-megawatt Agus 1 power plant located at the mouth of Lanao lake in Marawi City, downing five other plants in the region.

Whether it was the frequency problem, which the NGCP [National Grid Corp. of the Philippines] is saying that there was no frequency problem, we are looking at this breaker right now,” Petilla said during a press briefing.

However, Petilla said they are still conducting further investigation to find out if it was the plant that malfunctioned or the power grid.

“The switch there is the suspect right now, but it needs further investigation. If you notice the plants that shut down were cascaded. We have to confirm the data, the timelines because these are just seconds,” Petilla said. He added that they are now checking if a “frequency problem” in the entire power grid caused the blackout.

He said they were able to immediately restore power supply to about 70 percent of households in Mindanao on Thursday and at least 80 percent to 85 percent of households already have power supply on Friday.

He explained that the power supply was restored in a staggered basis to avoid further fluctuation or breakdown of the system.

Gladys Sta. Rita of the National Power Corp. (Napocor), which operates Agus 1, said the power plant is already back to normal operations.

Eugene Vicar, of the NGCP said that the system blackout occurred in the Mindanao Grid at 3:53 a.m. on February 27.

He explained that the generation was at 677.2 MW prior to the blackout where load dropped to 172.9 megawatts and that a power tripping occurred in Agus 1 hydropower plant.

“We have a series of plants in Mindanao coming from Marawi to iIigan. Agus 1 is connected to switch yard consist of high voltage equipment connected down the line to a switchyard,” he added.

He said the outage in Mindanao was the first time in 12 years that a total blackout happened in the region.

He said to prevent such occurrence in the future, they are improving the technical operations of all their grids.

“We are trying to resolve it and I think we restored the system at 12 noon.

We have to design and improve our operations to prevent such incident,” he added.

The NGCP said at least 12 of Mindanao’s key cities and provinces were affected by the total blackout although it was able to restore limited power in some parts a few hours later. The outage left millions of people without electricity in Mindanao on Thursday was a result of the tripping of the hydroelectric plant located in the mouth of Lanao lake but which repair crews have revived.

Petilla ruled out a possible deliberate explosion of the plants saying if it were so then it would be impossible to restore power that fast.

But as to what caused the tripping is still being looked at closely by the DoE and the repair crews, Petilla said.

The power disruption began before dawn of Thursday affecting heavily populated areas in Mindanao, where 100 million live.

The NGCP said at least 12 of Mindanao’s key cities and provinces—including major trading hubs—were affected, although limited power was restored in some parts a few hours later.

Petilla said the plants are now waiting to be put onstream. “None of the plants were damaged that is the good news. The plants are intact. They are going on-stream one by one and we are carefully isolating those that might trip again.”

He said that so far all PSALM (Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp) plants, except STEAG. Therma Marine Inc. of Aboitiz Equity Ventures is not yet online and the SPPC and Western Mindanao Power in General Santos and Zamboanga are not online on the grid and they are on island mode, or supplying their own areas. But anytime, they should be back online, he said.

He said 70 percent of the Mindanao grid is back to its original volume or capacity and before nightfall, we can follow up.   source

EDITORIAL - Energy crisis

(The Philippine Star) | Updated March 1, 2014 - 12:00am

Restore power first, and then find out the cause of the blackout that hit the entire Mindanao the other day. President Aquino reportedly issued this instruction as many parts of Mindanao continued to suffer from the power outage yesterday. With other power plants tripping, however, there was no assurance that electricity could be fully restored soon.

What is more certain is that the Mindanao-wide blackout can happen again, and with increasing frequency if authorities do not move to address the power problem. Throughout much of 2013, businesses in Mindanao suffered from regular blackouts lasting at least an hour. Experts have warned that Mindanao faces a power crisis for the next few years.

The blackout is on top of the snail-paced restoration of power service in areas devastated last year by Super Typhoon Yolanda and a powerful earthquake. This has been one of the biggest reasons for slow recovery in the disaster areas. The blackout the other day occurred shortly after President Aquino scolded his officials for the slow restoration of power service in the disaster zones.

Whether the scolding will lead to improvements is uncertain. A report earlier this month said that without electricity, economic activities could not pick up in Tacloban, the city hardest hit by Yolanda. With no job openings, workers are leaving the disaster zones and students have transferred to their schools’ branches in other cities.

The blackout the other day should remind officials that energy insecurity is a problem not only in Mindanao but also in Metro Manila and the rest of the country. The problem has been one of the greatest hindrances to attracting investments that generate meaningful jobs, particularly in manufacturing. The country not only faces an electricity shortage, it also has Asia’s highest power costs. Power being one of the biggest components of production, it’s not surprising that the country is a regional laggard in attracting foreign direct investment.

It will take a few years at best before new power plants can come on stream – if any is in the pipeline at all. With many projects failing to go beyond the planning stage in the past three years, President Aquino faces the prospect of crippling blackouts in the second half of his term. He will need to take decisive action if he doesn’t want to be remembered for power failure.   source

Butuan has highest water, power rates

Manila Standard Today

By Alvin T. Guanzon | Mar. 01, 2014 at 12:01am

BUTUAN CITY, Agusan del Norte --- Residents of this city pay the highest water and electricity rates in the country, which could be one of the reasons why 70 percent of the people are poor, members of the city council said.

Councilor Serge Pascual said Butuan residents pay P208.65 for 10 cubic meters but in Cagayan de Oro the rate was only P138.40 for 10 cubic meters and P137.30 for 10 cubic meters in Davao.

“If the user request for a one-inch pipe connection, the rate goes up to P667 per 10 cubic meters,” Pascual said.

Butuan City residents also pay P8.193 per kilowatt hour of electricity but in Davao City the rate is only P7.19 per kilowatt hour and P7.39 per kilowatt hour in Cagayan de Oro City.

“Wala na ngang trabaho, mahal pa yung kuryente at tubig. Kawawa talaga mga tao sa Butuan City, Pascual said.

Councilor Ryan Culima, chairman of the Committee on Public Utilities, said the steep water and electricity rates have prevented investors from coming to Butuan, which could help generate jobs for residents.

Water in the city is provided by the Butuan City Water District and the Agusan del Norte Electric Cooperative supplies electricity.   source

Mail // Elusive electric power

By Manila Standard Today | Mar. 01, 2014 at 12:01am

President Benigno Aquino III on his recent trip to Typhoon Pablo-devastated Cateel, Province of Davao Oriental, called up and scolded Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla, Budget Secretary Butch Abad and National Electrification Administrator Edith Bueno for their failure to fully restore electricity to Cateel. Alas, while denying that the department had any pending request from NEA, the DBM a day or two later approved the release of the requested funds. NEA and the local electric cooperative had been waiting for the funds for more than a year. It took a visit by Mr. Aquino to make things happen.

But oftentimes a visit is not enough. Or it is physically impossible for a president to visit every single place that has an unattended-to problem. Many communities affected by Typhoon Yolanda still have no electricity - fallen electric posts and cables lying on the ground are testimony to this. The Davao Oriental Electric Cooperative and its member-consumers had to wait more than a year and a presidential visit before DBM released the requested funds - will electric consumers in Yolanda-ravaged provinces across the Visayas have to wait equally long?

Unemployment and poverty remain high even without the help of natural disasters. Electric power spurs economic development and makes our neighborhoods safer. We cannot afford to ignore investments in rural infrastructure, including restoring electricity, which would help generate badly needed jobs and other sources of livelihood. Unfortunately, aside from a presidential scolding, it usually takes a massive blackout like the one that occurred in Mindanao February 27 or a rate increase in Metro Manila before the political powers and opinion makers take any notice of the state of electric power.

Marit Stinus-Cabugon

source

Meralco bill ‘error’ probed

Manila Standard Today

By Joyce Pangco Panares | Mar. 01, 2014 at 12:01am

THE Energy Regulatory Commission gave power distributor Manila Electric Co. five days to explain its “mistake” in including a deferred charge in the February electricity bills sent out to millions of its customers.

Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said Meralco was also ordered to undertake an information campaign to explain to the public the wrongful inclusion of the December distribution charge that is covered by an existing temporary restraining order of the Supreme Court.

“The ERC as the regulator of Meralco will be continuing its investigation on the issue and has asked Meralco to explain in five days the new electric billing format,” Valte said.

She said the Trade and Industry Department’s Consumer Protection Group headed by Victorio Dimagiba has also ordered Meralco to conduct an information campaign to explain the new bills to consumers, and to clear up the confusion about the difference between “amount due” and “total amount due.”

Meralco’s pass-on charge of P4.15/kwh for December 2013, which was stopped by the Supreme Court, was still reflected on this month’s bills under the “Balance from December” entry.

Although the power distributor clarified that customers are only required to pay the “total current amount” indicated on their bills, former Bayan Muna party-list Rep. Teddy Casiño said it was a

“desperate move” by Meralco to generate funds to pay power generating companies.

“Meralco is trying to get around the SC’s TRO in surreptitiously adding the controversial rate hike that should not have been included in the monthly bill in the first place,” Casiño said.

The Supreme Court has extended the TRO on Meralco’s impending rate hike for another 60 days.

“This is clearly bad faith on Meralco’s part and a blatant violation of the SC order,” Casiño said.

Meralco spokesman Joe Zaldarriaga said only the current charges are collected at Meralco payment outlets.

Zaldarriaga said the deferred charge was mentioned in the latest electricity bill just to remind customers of the pending case before the Supreme Court.

Earlier, President Benigno Aquino III said Meralco’s looming rate increase was too high and could have been reduced if the power distributor prepared ahead for the scheduled shutdown of the Malampaya gas plant.

Aquino stopped short at confirming allegations of collusion among the power producers to spike the electricity rates, but he said “our impression is there are people who really made a very significant profit from this situation.”

“The Malampaya shutdown is not an unusual event. It happens every two to three years. It is a foreseeable event,” Aquino said. “We don’t think the price increase that is being charged is commensurate to what should have been the case.”

“You (Meralco) know that your power producers will not be able to produce, then you have to find a substitute. So you could have prepared for it; you should have prepared for it,” the President said.

With the shutdown of the Malampaya gas plant and other power plants late last year, Meralco said it was forced to buy from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market at peak prices.

Aquino said the government will be proposing to Congress amendments to the Electric Power Industry Reform Act, which deregulated the power sector.

“There are specific amendments—it’s part of the study. I think we are looking at the powers of the ERC. But, again, I am not ready to comment on the specific amendments that we will be proposing to Congress,” he said.   source

1-hour rotating blackouts in DLPC franchise today

Sunstar DavaoFriday, February 28, 2014

DUE to the present unstable power supply, Davao Light and Power Co. (DLPC) was constrained to conduct emergency one-hour rotating brownouts in the areas where it is serving.

This, after the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) advised the electric distribution utility to implement manual load dropping due to insufficient power supply.

The implementation of the rotating brownouts is necessary to avoid total collapse of the Mindanao transmission grid which happens when the demand for power exceeds the available supply.

The power firm said that it is doing its best efforts to mitigate the impact of the insufficient power supply by optimizing its embedded power sources; the standby diesel plant at Bajada and the Hedcor Sibulan and Talomo hydropower plants.The entire franchise of Davao Light on Thursday experienced a total blackout after the NGCP, the transmission operator, experienced a power disturbance in its power transmission line. After three attempts starting 5:52 a.m., power in all Davao Light franchise was fully restored at 12:26 p.m.

Davao Light apologized to its consumers for the inconvenience brought about by these power interruptions which are beyond its control.

For schedule of the one-hour power interruption, please refer to the following:

- call center at 229-3572 (DLPC)
- Davao Light website at www.davaolight.com
- Facebook and twitter accounts
- you may also email davaolight@aboitiz.com

source

Group chides Petilla's incompetence as Energy secretary

Sunstar DavaoFriday, February 28, 2014

A GROUP opposing power rate increase on Friday urged Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Jericho Petilla to resign from post for failing to address the power crisis in Mindanao.

In a statement, former Bayan Muna Representative Teddy Casiño, now convenor of People Opposed to Unwarranted Electricity Rates (Power), said the DOE's effort to address the critical power crisis that has been plaguing Mindanao for the last five years proved futile.

"Maybe it's time Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla look for another job, probably as undersecretary of the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) where he can better tend to his constituents in disaster-struck Leyte," Casiño said.

He noted that the blackout last Thursday, February 27, transpired after the revelation that in the Pablo-struck areas of Southern Mindanao, 57 percent of villages still has no power more than a year after the storm and despite billions of pesos spent on rehabilitation.He said the DOE remained clueless 24 hours after the incident.

The Power also said the problem on Mindanao's power might get worse since Petilla is determined to implementing the Interim Mindanao Electricity Market (IMEM), which they describe as "a clone of the dreaded Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM) in Luzon that caused power rates to spike last November and December, making Meralco seek a P4.15 power rate hike in December and another P5.33 hike in January."

"Worse than WESM, which operates in Luzon's limited power supply, IMEM will be operating in Mindanao where there is an acute power shortage. This will definitely lead to even higher prices, with power generators having a heyday manipulating the spot market," the group said.

Casiño feared the IMEM will have the same schemes with WESM such as high clearing prices and automatic pass through charges, which will be experienced by electricity consumers all over Mindanao.
These, he said, will lead to higher rates.

LISTEN: Statement of DOE Sec. Jericho Petilla (February 28, 2014)

Meanwhile, the DOE already identified the cause of the power outage.

In a report of Interaksyon.com, Petilla pointed out the problems at the 80-megawatt Agus 1 hydroelectric power plant in Marawi City being operated by the National Power Corporation as the cause of the blackout.

"Yong Agus 1 area sa Lanao del Norte, dito nagsimula 'yong tripping [that's where the tripping started]," he said.

He said they are yet to find out whether it was the plant or the lines of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP)that tripped.

The Davao Light and Power Co. (DLPC) said on Friday it will continue to conduct one-hour rotating brownouts due to ongoing insufficient power supply as advised by the NGCP.

"The implementation of the rotating brownouts was necessary to apportion available power supply to its customers. It will also contribute in avoiding total collapse of the entire Mindanao transmission grid which happens when the demand for power exceeds the available supply," the DLPC said in a statement.

The DLPC said it will go on with this measure until notice from the NGCP to lift its implementation is received.(Arianne Caryl N. Casas)  source

Mindanao-wide blackout shocks Energy secretary

By Reuel John F. LumawagFriday, February 28, 2014

THE Mindanao-wide power outage on Thursday caught Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho Petilla by surprise, as he held a press conference at the 9th floor of Philippine Electricity Market Corporation (PEMC).

"We are all surprised. System-wide [outage] in Mindanao, I could not remember the last time this happened," he said in a transcript of the press conference furnished to Sun.Star Davao.

At 3:53 a.m. on Thursday, Mindanao experienced an island-wide blackout brought by a power disturbance in the Mindanao grid.

"We may not have enough for Mindanao, but the curtailment is actually very small-16 to 20 megawatts (MW) deficit. This cannot be compared to a summertime demand na 200 MW ang curtailment," he said.Petilla said Mindanao usually experiences massive brownouts that will range from four to six hours every February. But he said Mindanao hardly had any this year where brownouts lasted for only an hour.

Petilla said initial reports from the teams in Mindanao reported that the problem started in Pulangi IV, Bukidnon.

"That was just the initial report, there was no written report yet. It did not indicate anything other than it started there. If the problem was with the plants, the indication is that probably the problem is from the breaker of the plant; and if it's the line, then it's the line along that area. It can be a trip but why it tripped, that's got to take some time. Our initial report was everything went down all together," he said.

LISTEN: Statement of DOE Sec. Jericho Petilla (February 28, 2014)

Petilla said they are trying to retrieve the time log in Pulangi IV to determine the cause of the problem.

He said, "Definitely there is something that triggered it (the blackout) and that is what we're trying to find out right now."

Petilla said they can only speculate but they cannot conclude anything at this point.

He also said there were no reports of any attack on the grid from armed groups.

"Kung meron man pinasabog, then you wouldn't be able to restore power because you have to do a lot of fixing. Sabi ko nga, until I receive reports, I will not discount anything but at this point it is unlikely," he said.

Petilla also said that the incident has nothing to do with the power supply of Mindanao because it is a totally different problem from the supply.

Petiilla said around 1,100 MW to 1,200 MW was lost when the outage struck.

As of 4:30 p.m. Friday, the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) said they have fully restored power in the island.

"The next phase is basically to find out what went wrong. Then, determine what measures will we put in to prevent this thing from happening again. We have to take this one step at a time," Petilla said, adding that they are expecting reports from the deployed teams in Mindanao as soon as possible.

Earlier, NGCP spokesperson Cynthia Perez-Alabanza, in a phone interview with Sun.Star Davao, said NGCP was not the reason for the island-wide blackout.

"Yung na monitor na disturbance, nawala ang kuryente. Hindi po kami gumawa niyon, nangyari lang po iyon. Ang ginawa namin is nakipag-coordinate kami sa power plants at sinusubukan po naming ibalik ng isa't isa yung kaya ng tumakbo," she said, stressing that NGCP or other power suppliers have nothing to do with the incident.   source

Agus 1 tripping caused Mindanao blackout, DOE’s Petilla says

Business Mirror

28 Feb 2014

 

Written by Marvyn Benaning with ABS-CBNnews.com

The Department of Energy (DOE) has revealed the cause of the blackout that hit parts of Mindanao on Thursday.

Energy Secretary Carlos L. Jericho L. Petilla said an initial report showed the blackout was caused by a malfunction at the Agus 1 power plant in Lanao del Norte.

“Ang lumalabas na initial report, but we will verify this sa logger, makikita natin doon ang timeline ng pagbagsak, ay ’yung Agus 1 area sa Lanao del Norte, dito nagsimula ’yung tripping. Whether ang planta ang nag-trip o linya ng NGCP [National Grid Corp. of the Philippines], transmission, ’yan ang inalaam natin ngayon,” he told dzMM.

“Tsine-check natin ngayon ’yung mga auto-protection switches kung gumana ba ito o hindi gumana at saan banda ang nag-fail. Basically, itong Agus 1, maliit lang ito na planta, mga 30 to 45 megawatts [MW],” he added.

Petilla said the problem at Agus 1 was fixed by Thursday afternoon, and electricity supply was restored in the affected areas.

The DOE chief said they will still investigate the incident, together with NGCP and the power plant.

Asked if the blackout was caused by sabotage, Petilla said the initial report showed there was no trace of sabotage, although he was not ruling it out yet.

Also, Petilla said the Steag 200-MW coal-fired power plant in Cagayan de Oro was still not operating as of Thursday night. The plant is expected to start running again by Friday morning.

Aquino bungling

Former Party-list Rep. Teddy Casiño of Bayan Muna has slammed President Aquino for bungling anew in Mindanao after the entire island-region was plunged into darkness, with the outage crippling major cities and towns.

Casiño said the critical power situation in Mindanao has not been solved in the past five years, with the Aquino administration exacerbating it, as illustrated by the fact that 57 percent of all barangays hit by Typhoon Pablo in Southern Mindanao two years ago still does not have electricity.

He added that the Aquino administration claimed to have poured in billions for rehabilitation of the typhoon-ravaged areas but still could not provide electricity.

The former Bayan Muna lawmaker, now the spokesman of the People Opposed to Unwarranted Electricity Rates (Power), expressed alarm over Mr. Aquino’s alleged failure to solve the problem.

Casiño said the DOE remained clueless as to the cause of the island-wide outage 24 hours after it happened.

“Maybe it’s time Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla look for another job, probably as undersecretary of the Department of Social Welfare and Development, where he can better tend to his constituents in disaster-struck Leyte,” Casiño suggested.

“Unfortunately, Mindanao’s power woes will get worse because the DOE under Petilla is bent on implementing the Interim Mindanao Electricity Market [Imem], a clone of the dreaded Wholesale Electricity Spot Market [WESM] in Luzon that caused power rates to spike last November and December, making Meralco seek a P4.15 power-rate hike in December and another P5.33 hike in January,” he added.

“Worse than WESM, which operates in Luzon’s limited power supply, Imem will be operating in Mindanao where there is an acute power shortage. This will definitely lead to even higher prices, with power generators having a heyday manipulating the spot market,” Casiño warned.

“If Imem is allowed to continue operating, the same WESM schemes, like high clearing prices and automatic pass-through charges, will be experienced by electricity consumers all over Mindanao, leading to higher rates,” he said.

Already, Mindanao’s electric cooperatives are up in arms over Imem’s more than P200 million in excess billing from November 26 to December 25, when it charged the cooperatives for electricity that allegedly was neither ordered nor delivered.

The co-ops have refused to pay the charges and are poised to ask the courts to declare Imem illegal.

Imem is managed by the Philippine Electric Market Corp., the same agency that oversees WESM, Casiño said.  source

Mindanao experiencing 3-hour brownouts

Business World Online

Posted on February 28, 2014 08:30:54 PM

Residents in Mindanao continue to experience up to three hours of rotating brownouts pending the return to operations of a 210-megawatt (MW) coal-fired power plant in Misamis Oriental, officials told reporters on Friday.

The coal plant -- operated by STEAG State Power, Inc. -- tripped, together with other power plants early on Thursday morning, causing a massive outage across the entire island of Mindanao.

The officials said that 80-85% of the power supply in Mindanao has been restored.

“All the power transmission and distribution facilities have been restored. All power plants except STEAG are already up and running,” Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho L. Petilla said in a briefing held at the department’s headquarters in Bonifacio Global City.

“There are still brownouts because of STEAG, which [generates] more than 200 MW. [That translates to] around two-to-three hour rotating brownouts until STEAG is back,” said Eugene H. Bicar, National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) head for Mindanao Systems Operations, said during the same briefing.

Mr. Bicar said the coal plant was running normally before the blackout, but after tripping, it had some technical problems that resulted in its inability to be synchronized to the grid.

“They’re still looking at when it will resume. They haven’t identified the cause yet. They said they’re going to get some consultants,” the official added.

Mr. Bicar traced the outage to a malfunction of one of the circuit breakers of the Agus 1 hydroelectric power plant in Lanao del Sur. “The malfunction at Agus 1 triggered the collapse of all generation facilities in Mindanao,” Mr. Bicar said.

He clarified that the NGCP’s transmission facilities were not at fault as these were already fully restored by noon yesterday.

EQUIPMENT MALFUNCTION
The exact cause of Agus 1’s equipment malfunction was yet to be determined. “This is still subject for further investigation. We will have to collect all the data from individual reports of Napocor (National Power Corp.), NGCP, and the other power plant owners,” Mr. Petilla said. These reports are expected to be submitted by Monday, the official said.

Meanwhile, Napocor President Gladys Cruz-Sta. Rita said that the Agus 1 hydro plant is already back to operating normally.

“We are also finalizing the data that we will submit. We are going to dig deeper to see what went wrong,” Ms. Cruz-Sta. Rita.

Ms. Cruz-Sta. Rita also acknowledged the inefficiency of some of Agus 1’s facilities because of “old age.”

The 80-MW plant forms part of the Agus-Pulangi hydroelectric power plant complex, which supplies more than half of Mindanao’s power needs.

“We are actually looking at new equipment for installation in Agus 1. Our people are also checking the maintenance,” Ms. Cruz-Sta. Rita said.

“NGCP and Napocor agreed to review the protection settings so that this won’t happen again,” she added.

Mr. Petilla also emphasized that problems in power facilities are inevitable.

“While we have a regular maintenance program, some of those [facilities] are really old. So the problem could be electrical in nature. These are the things that happen every now and then,” the Energy chief said. “We try to prevent all of these but if for some reason, it happens again, the most important [thing] is how quickly we can restore the power,” he added.

Mr. Petilla said it will coordinate with Napocor and other concerned agencies to determine the cause of the problem and come up with the solution.

“It could be because of the old facilities. But before we replace them, we should first check and evaluate if that’s really the cause. The technical people will be there to evaluate that,” he said.

“We will see if there’s negligence or just electrical problem,” he added.

DAVAO’S ROTATING BROWNOUT
Meanwhile, the Davao Light and Power Co., a subsidiary of Aboitiz Power Corp., announced late Thursday that there would be hour-long rotating power outages within its franchise area. This came after the NGCP asked the city’s power utility to reduce its load due to the insufficient supply in the Mindanao grid.

Details of the rotating brownout, however, have yet to be provided by the company even as it noted such a measure is necessary to avoid a collapse of the Mindanao transmission grid. Davao Light’s franchise area takes up as much as a fourth of the grid’s supply estimated at roughly 1,300 megawatts (MW).

This is the first time Davao Light announced a rotating brownout since the long dry spell in 2010 that disrupted the operation of Mindanao’s power generation capacity. Under the worst scenario then, the city’s downtown where most businesses are located suffered an hour without power during the day while areas outside downtown had to endure two hours without electricity.

The firm said it is doing its best to reduce the adverse impact of the situation, noting it has embedded power sources that it could harness in the near term. These are the company’s 40-MW standby diesel plant at Bajada, and the Hedcor Sibulan and Talomo hydropower plants which could provide about the same amount of power.

LIGHTS OFF
The Energy department failed to meet its target of full power restoration within the same day of the system-wide outage.

All power plants in Mindanao -- which had a combined dependable capacity of 1,100-1,200 MW on Thursday -- went offline because of the outage.

Power was immediately restored in major cities in Mindanao -- including Davao, General Santos, Zamboanga, Pagadian and Cagayan de Oro -- according to the NGCP.

The Energy chief also warned of power shortages in the upcoming summer months in the wake of the blackout. He had said on Thursday that there will be a shortage of up to 150-MW, equivalent to three-hour rotating brownouts.

LUZON BLACKOUT
The massive outage came less than a year after significant parts of Luzon experienced a major power outage on May 8, 2013 that lasted for almost 10 hours. The cause of that outage was attributed to the malfunction of a transmission line, which in turn bogged down six major power plants in Luzon. The plants’ shutdown resulted in the loss of 3,700-MW in the Luzon grid -- almost half of the 8,300 MW peak demand in the island.

The NGCP tracked the problem to a unit of the 600-MW Calaca plant in Batangas, which tripped along with the Calaca-Biñan 230-kilovolt transmission line.

Besides the Calaca plant, the other major plants affected were identified as the 1,200-MW Ilijan, 1,000-MW Sta. Rita and 500-MW San Lorenzo natural gas power plants in Batangas City; the 460-MW Quezon coal-fired power plant in Mauban Quezon; and the 1,218-MW Sual coal-fired power plant in Pangasinan. -- Claire-Ann Marie C. Feliciano    source