DAVAO CITY — The Davao Light and Power company has implemented two-hour rotating power interruptions after the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) imposed a Mindanao-wide deficit due to the emergency shutdown of two major power plants in Mindanao.
Davao Light in a statement said since Thursday “the NGCP implemented a Mindanao-wide grid curtailment due to the derated capacity of Pulangi and Agus Hydropower plants due to low water elevation in effect of the El Nino.”
Customers within the Davao Light franchise had to experience emergency power interruptions of within 30 minutes to an hour due to the power supply shortage.
At around 9:00 in the evening, the NGCP activated an under frequency due to the sudden interruption of Agus-Kibawe 138 kV (kilovoltage) Line caused by the emergency shutdown of the two plants in Agus complex. This has resulted to a power interruption in certain areas within Davao Light.
“These causes 1) derated capacity of one of the plants in Agus complex and Pulangi hydroelectric plant, and 2) the NGCP shutdown of Agus-Kibawe line led to the 150 MW (megawatts) grid deficiency in Mindanao,” said Davao Light, adding that its average power supply allocation within the day goes down from 273 MW contracted supply to 109 MW.
Adding other power supply contracts of Davao Light with Hedcor Sibulan and Hedcor Talomo, Therma Marine Inc. and Therma South Inc. together with the power generated from the Bajada Power Plant and the power saved from activating the Interruptible Load Program, the franchise will have a total average supply of 258 MW.
Davao Light said the supply “is still not enough to supply the forecasted average demand for the day”, which is 285 MW. The 27MW deficiency will now result to a two-hour rotating power interruption, it said.(davaotoday.com)
