Power outage hits Panay Island, Boracay spared
A power outage due to ''unscheduled maintenance shutdowns of the largest power plants'' hit Panay Island due to tripping of various power plants on Tuesday, the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) official said Wednesday.
According to the NGCP, the tripping of multiple power plants that started around 12 noon on Tuesday has isolated Panay island from the rest of the Visayas grid.
"The unscheduled maintenance shutdowns of the largest power plants in Panay island was the primary cause of the power interruption. We emphasize the need for improved planning to ensure sufficient generation per island, with a well-balanced mix of fuels and technology,” it stated.
Mayor Frolibar Bautista of Malay, Aklan, whose area covers the world-famous Boracay Island, told dzBB facilities in the resort have generators and these were activated when Malay lost power at 3 pm Tuesday. He said at 3 pm Wednesday, power was restored.
NGCP reported that various power plants in Panay Island suffered multiple tripping on January 2, including PEDC (Panay Energy Development Corp.) Unit 1 and 2 (83 megawatts each), and PCPC (135MW), among others.
It noted that "with the tripping of three of the largest power generating units and the planned maintenance shutdown of PEDC Unit 3 (150MW), 451MW or 68.75 percent of the total 656MW in-island generation was lost to the Panay sub-grid."
The NGCP also stressed that the "maintenance shutdowns and deration of plants outside the Department of Energy's (DOE) approved Grid Operating and Maintenance Program also contributed to the lack of power supply."
It reported that "as of 9:30 pm of January 2, only 4 out of 13 power plants are producing 40.3MW or 6.2 percent of the 83.5MW demand of Panay island" and noted that "the grid needs about 300MW to stabilize the system."
In a radio interview on Wednesday, NGCP spokesperson Cynthia Alabanza did not say when will the power will be restored in the Island but she confirmed that one of the affected plants has started power generation on Tuesday night.
"This is always being asked by (Iloilo) Mayor (Jerry) Trenas. Unfortunately I was not able to give information about the restoration time because it will depend on the power that will be produced by the (power) plant," she said.
"Last night one of the plant, the PEDC unit two, has started to produced electricity, but it will be gradual... it started to produce electricity around midnight last night. And currently as of 6 am this morning, it can produced around 84 percent of its electricity but it is still small at around 70 megawatts. So more than 400MW was lost and so far only 70 megawatts were restored from the four (power) plants," she added.
The NGCP assures the public that it "is ready to transmit power once it is available."
“We will be restoring loads conservatively, by matching loads to restored generation, to prevent repeated voltage failure," it stated.
"The people must understand that we can only transmit power, we do not generate power,” the NGCP added.
In a statement, the Department of Energy confirmed that the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) is already conducting an inquiry in the power outage as it emphasized that its agency is "closely coordinating with the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) and all affected generation plants and distribution utilities (DUs)" for the immediate power restoration.
"We assure the public that power restoration is of priority. Meanwhile, the Energy Regulatory Commission is investigating the incident. Robina Asido/DMS
