DAVAO CITY – No brownouts occurred during the weekends despite an earlier announcement by the city’s sole electric distribution company of a two-hour rotational brownout from February 21 to March 2.
Ross Luga, Reputation Management Department Manager of Aboitiz-owned Davao Light and Power Company (DLPC), said that there was “no manual load dropping” during the weekends but the rotational blackouts advisory they issued remained effective.
Luga, in a “Supply-Demand Scenario” presentation before the media said that they expected a total supply of 297.2 Megawatts (MW) but the total demand is 330 MW or a supply deficit of 32.8 MW.
Asked if the schedule will be lifted or extended, Engineer Mark Valencia, assistant vice-president for engineering of DLPC said that it will “stay.”
“The schedule is still there as it depends on the supply and demand. We have projected a 330 (MW) demand but as of 11 o’clock we are seeing a demand of 288 (MW). This is good and if we look outside it’s a cool weather so the demand is not picking up,” he said.
Luga said their “contracted power” from the National Power Corporation (NPC) is 280 Megawatts (MW) but only 191 MW was delivered because of the “preventive maintenance of STEAG (State Power)” coal-fired power plant in Misamis Oriental.
He said STEAG’s preventive maintenance is on February 21 to March 16 for Unit 1 while February 25 to March 16 is scheduled for Unit 2.
He said that the DLPC source its power from NPC – 191 MW, affiliate company Hedcor Tamugan – 33 MW, Hedcor Talomo – 3.2 MW, Therma Marine, Inc. – 30 MW, DLPC Bajada Powerplant – 30 MW and Interruptible Load Program – 10 MW.
Valencia said that while they have projected to receive 191 MW from the NPC, they got 199 MW Monday and 35 to 36 MW instead of the projected 33 MW projected from Hedcor Tamugan and 30 instead of 35 MW projected generation from their Bajada diesel power plant.
“The situation is unpredictable and sometimes there can be unexpected brownouts because of the supply like if the two units of STEAG will shut down,” he said.
Meanwhile, Luga said that their Interruptible Load Program “is not a supply per se but a contribution of our big customers that do not draw power from us but instead use their own generation sets.”
Luga they have 17 big customers which includes big malls and two banana plantations in nearby Panabo City, Davao del Norte.
He said the 10MW which these big customers generate, means power for 10,000 household consumers.
Meanwhile, Luga said that they already have 333, 680 customers as of January 15 this year.
Out of the total, 289, 590 are residential (houses), 40, 309 are secondary retail 2.1 (sari-sari stores), 3, 497 are secondary retail 3.1 (above 20 kV but below 70 kV), 176 are primary retail (big business), 2 are under 69 kV-B, 106 are under Flat Lighting Services (streetlights both private and government).
With the operation of Therma South, Inc, Aboitiz’s 600 MW coal-fired powerplant in Davao City, Valencia said “that there will be mostly no more brownouts this year even if STEAG will shut down.”
With regards to the increase in the electricity rates, Valencia said, “the rates we are collecting are approved by the ERC so we cannot just increase.”
According to the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines’ facebook post, the Available Capacity for Mindanao for Tuesday is 1, 392 MW but System Peak is 1, 369 MW with the difference of 23 MW. (davaotoday.com)
