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Friday, October 22, 2004
Drop in power reserves sparks outages
By Liberty A. Pinili
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
SINCE Tuesday, consumers have been experiencing power interruptions at night as supply has been unable to cope with the high demand for electricity.
Mosses Red, National Power Corp. (Napocor) corporate staff officer, said yesterday that five power sources in the Cebu-Negros-Panay (CNP) grid are undergoing maintenance and are offline.
But he said supply would have been enough if it not for the high demand during the months before Christmas.
Negligible
The reserve power was pegged at 10 to 13 megawatts (mw) last night, which Red said, was “negligible.” Tuesday night, there was nothing at all.
The Visayan Electric Co. (Veco) had cut some load during peak hours from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. by shutting down some feeders. The load shedding resulted in power outages in several portions of Veco’s service area.
Major power sources that are undergoing maintenance in the grid will not be operational until next month.
Red said the maintenance of land-based gas turbine plant in Naga, Cebu, a geothermal plant in Palinpinon in Negros Oriental, and three small sources, have been scheduled for some time.
“The maintenance had been postponed several times, but we have to do it now to avoid a major problem,” he said.
The gas turbine plant in Naga, Cebu that has a capacity to produce 25 mw a day, is expected to be operational again on Dec. 16, 2004 yet.
The Palinpinon unit 2 plant, which can produce 37 mw, is expected to be operational by Nov. 22.
Red said the Cebu diesel power plant 1, which is also under maintenance, is expected to be operational today and will add six mw to the grid.
Maintenance work on the five-mw Panay power plant is expected to be completed by Oct. 25 while power barge 102, also in Panay, will be on line again on Nov. 10.
The power barge 102 supplies 6 mw to the grid.
“Even if these plants are on maintenance, if the demand is lower than it is during peak hours, we will not have a shortage,” said Red.
He said demand for power usually increases during the months close to Christmas and also when the weather is hot.
The average daily supply in the CNP is 700 mw, while demand for power is about 685 to 690 mw a day.
(October 22, 2004 issue)
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