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Saturday, May 13, 2006
No coordination: Tomas; power return quick: Transco
By Linette C. Ramos & Charmaine Y. Rodriguez
Sun.Star Staff Reporters
Power stakeholders in Cebu should get their act together to avoid another blackout, especially during the Asean summit, Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña said.
Osmeña’s criticisms against the energy sector extended to the Asean summit preparations, saying the national and local organizing committees may have difficulties addressing concerns such as a power outage because of the absence of a central command.
To avoid similar incidents in the future, Osmeña wants the Department of Energy (DOE) to take the lead in setting up a centralized communication system that will synchronize all activities of agencies in the energy sector in the event of a power shortage.
Not short
The mayor criticized Cebu’s power suppliers and distributors for their lack of coordination, which he said resulted in a prolonged power outage last Wednesday.
He believes the eight-hour blackout could have been avoided if only the National Power Corp. (Napocor), National Transmission Corp. (Transco) and the Visayan Electric Co. (Veco) had a central command and communications system and coordinated with one another.
“I don’t necessarily agree that Cebu is dangerously short on power, we’re just scaring away the investors. We’re not short on power, it’s just mismanagement,” he told a news conference yesterday.
Although the power restoration efforts during the May 10 blackout had been “quick,” Transco sees the need for concerned agencies to meet and study ways to handle similar incidents in the future.
SOP
Jules Alcantara, Transco vice president for Visayas and Mindanao, assured the public that Transco, being an ISO 9001 certified agency, has already set up standard operating procedures (SOPs) in handling power shutdowns.
“It (the restoration) was so smooth, power was restored to normal at 6 p.m. or before peak hours,” he said of last Wednesday’s region-wide blackout due to a mild earthquake in Leyte at past 10 a.m.
However, he said that had the power plants in Leyte not automatically shut down, Transco would have been permanently damaged and the restoration of power would have taken longer.
Department of Energy (DOE) Visayas Director Antonio Labios said it would have been a bigger problem for the region if the sources of power supply were the ones that were destroyed.
DOE Visayas, he said, is in charge of assessing the extent of the effects of the blackout.
Transco and Napocor follow SOPs in handling situations, even those brought by “force majeure,” like an earthquake.
Although the effect of the power outage can’t be quantified yet, Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry president Francis Monera said Cebu really needs backup power.
“This issue needs to be addressed with urgency, if Cebu aims to attract more investors and tourists,” Monera said.
By 2008
Labios admits the incident highlights the need for more generating plants in Cebu, similar to what Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia pointed out. DOE energy plan forecasts a power shortage in the Visayas by 2008.
But Osmeña said before power plants are put up, the region first “needs good managers.”
Mosses Red, Napocor Visayas in-charge of loads and dispatches, supported Alcantara’s observation that the agencies responded well to the incident.
Earlier, Red explained that not all plants in the Visayas grid have the capacity to start up on their own.
The Palimpinon Geothermal Power Plant 2 in Oriental Negros was the one which was initially able to start up and provide feedback power to Cebu then to Leyte.
He said Leyte A, which is a group of power plants operated by California Energy, has a similar capacity. However, he does not know why it failed to resume providing power immediately.
Officials of Napocor Visayas met yesterday afternoon to conduct an assessment of the incident.
Alcantara said plants that run on diesel have the capacity to start up on their own unlike turbine and thermal plants.
Dynamic
He said coal-fired plants, which run on turbines, also could not start up on their own.
However, he said the proposed 200-megawatt (mw) coal-fired power plants in Naga, Cebu could answer the energy needs of Cebu.
He said the 400mws that Transco is transmitting to Cebu, through submarine cables, will no longer be enough to supply the demand of the province in five years or less.
“Cebu is one of the most dynamic economies in the country. The demand for electricity is increasing,” he said.
DOE’s Labios said Cebu, which has a dependable capacity of 164mw and a demand of more than 400mws, has a shortfall of about 300mw at present.
“The deficit is being supplied by Leyte,” he said, adding that the supply will still be needed even with the 200mw coal-fired power plants will be completed.
Osmeña said the blackout was a good lesson and an exercise the energy sector and LGUs can learn from to be better prepared for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) summit.
2 conductors
“One of the reasons why there is no central command system is the separation of Transco and Napocor. There are now two conductors and they don’t even know who’s in charge of what. There was no contingency plan on how to handle the situation... They have to put their act together,” he said.
The mayor anticipates that summit organizers will have difficulties coordinating between the local government units and the National Government agencies.
Although the national organizing committee (NOC) has a local counterpart, the mayor said there is no central command that can address urgent concerns during the summit, such as a power outage or peace and order issues.
“They keep saying the NOC will take care of this and that but unfortunately I’m not convinced because NOC is chaired by the President herself, and I can’t see her sitting in the command post during the summit because she’s part of the summit,” he said. (With JBN)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (May 13, 2006 issue)
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