Power supply in Panay restored but remains vulnerable: official
The power supply in Panay Island remains vulnerable following its restoration on Friday afternoon, Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) Chair. Mona Dimalanta said Saturday.
"It is now stable but it is still vulnerable because most or more than 90 percent of its supply really comes from the (power) plants inside the island. It has import capability using the submarine cable with Negros, but only around 10 percent were imported from Negros because Negros is also supplying its own requirements," she said in a news forum in Quezon City.
Dimalanta said the situation of the power supply in the Island had returned to normal around 12 noon to 2 pm of Friday.
"As of yesterday, Friday afternoon, the power supply in Panay, in Western Visayas has been restored, because the (power) plant that we are waiting to operate was able to synchronize to the grid around 1:30 in the morning," she said.
"Between 12 to 2 o'clock the situation in Western Visayas has returned to normal, that is why the NGCP, our system operator lifted all the constraints and the commercial operation of WESM (Wholesale Electricity Spot Market) ng Spot Market in the Visayas Region have also returned," she added.
In its advisory, the NGCP said it fully restored all affected feeders in Panay Island around 12:34 pm, Friday and "normalized transmission operations in the area following the synchronization of the remaining generating unit PCPC (135MW) to the grid at 1:33 am.
Dimalanta noted that the power supply in the Island will remain vulnerable until the Cebu-Negros-Panay Interconnection project is finally completed.
"The state of Panay subgrid until the CNP project is completed," she said.
"The CNP is needed to import all the way from Cebu, three Islands can help each other," she added.
Dimalanta said the completion of the CNP project was delayed several times from 2018 to 2020, then August of 2023 to December and now the latest update for target completion is March.
It can be recalled that the widespread power outage in Panay was started when six plants in the Island tripped last Tuesday.
In his statement on Friday, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. said the massive power interruption could have been prevented if the NGCP resorted to manual load dropping after the first power plant was tripped.
"The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines, had a crucial two-hour window to prevent the system collapse, as highlighted by the Independent Market Electricity Operator of the Philippines or IMEOP. Regrettably, during this period, NGCP failed to resort to manual load dropping resulting in the crisis that we are facing now," he said.
Dimalanta said the ERC is expected to collect all the needed documents and information needed for the investigation by next week and hope to complete the investigation within six to eight weeks.
She also noted that aside from NGCP, the government may also sanction other entities responsible for the widespread power outage in Panay Island.
"Against NGCP or whoever else is accountable because we don't just excuse for example the (power) plants, because it is possible that there is a plant who did not maintain the standard," Dimalanta said. Robina Asido/DMS
