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Thursday, April 17, 2003
The power outage that never was
By Jimmy P. Abayon
LAST APRIL 5, 2003 Negros Oriental II Electric Cooperative (Noreco II) plunged Dumaguete City and areas it is serving in Negros Oriental into darkness for several hours. When it resumed, power was so low and deficient that many activities that depend on electricity faltered.
It turned out later that Noreco II had taken the initiative alone, so said the National Power Corporation (NPC).
Engr. Rodolfo C. Pacaņa, plant manager of Palinpinon Geothermal Power Plant (PGPP) in Palinpinon, Valencia, Negros Oriental, clarified this in his letter to Zosimo A. Briones, department manager, District IV of National Transmission Corporation (TRANSCO) in Bacolod City.
In that letter sent to Briones a day after the power outage, Pacaņa said his office did not have "previous knowledge" of the brownout which consumers had believed resulted from NPC's total plant maintenance rehabilitation.
"The public believed that the total plant maintenance outage caused the brownout last Saturday...the cooperative (Noreco II) took advantage of the situation to the detriment of NPC-PGPP," Engr. Pacaņa said.
In his reply to Pacaņa, Briones said Transco's office in Amlan, Negros Oriental was also not informed of the planned shutdown of its Pulangtubig system in Dumaguete City.
"Noreco II should have explained the real reason, since during that time the system did not experience power deficiency," the TRANSCO official said.
Briones assured to write Noreco II requesting them to inform the corporation of any activity involving power interruption in its coverage area as part of standing operational procedure.
But Noreco II said otherwise.
"It is not our duty to inform them," Ma. Cristina Tiongson, information officer-designate of Noreco II said.
Tiongson clarified that the cooperative has no obligation to notify NPC or Transco about activities involving its system of operations within its area of responsibility except in "certain" cases.
Moreover, she explained to Sun.Star that the Saturday brownout was part of Noreco II's regular activities that include replacing rotten poles, and regulator, AVR and oil checks.
"Last Saturday, it (is) a scheduled interruption because we do this for our
maintenance," Tiongson said.
She said it was inevitable that the public assumed the brown out signaled the start of the three-day power outage, an information that was sensationalized based on reports that the province and the Negros-Panay-Cebu grid will experience an intensive power shutdown.
"Na-confused ang consumers the way ang media ni-report (The consumers were confused by the reports)," Tiongson said.
NPC, she added, should have confirmed with Noreco II about the planned outage before breaking out the report since the cooperative has direct liability with the consumers.
The information officer further clarified that "power shortage is not power outage" the way the media interpreted the Noreco II press release.
Consumers, she said, assumed there would be a power shortage and deficiency within the Negros-Panay-Cebu grid because of the plant maintenance of the PGPP-1 during the scheduled period.
NPC supplies power to NORECO which in turn sells this to the consumers.
Tiongson, meantime announced there would be another power interruption in its coverage area on April 27, 2003 due to NPC's regular maintenance activity.
No power outage soon
Meanwhile, Engr. Pacaņa assured there would be no "intensive power outage" in the Negros-Panay-Cebu grid anytime soon.
The assurance followed apprehension that a massive blackout would hit the areas served by NPC as a result of its plant rehabilitation.
Pacaņa said the total shutdown of the Palinpinon Geothermal Power Plant (PGPP) was made last April 5-7, 2003 following the approval of the request by the Visayas System Operation Dispatch (VSOD) office in Banilad, Cebu City.
The original request, he said, was for a total plant shutdown for five days on March 31-April 4, but VSOD-Banilad approved it only for three days to be pegged on weekends.
Pacaņa clarified in his request to VSOD that the power scenario hs already been taken cared of.
"We believe that the power scenario of the Cebu-Negros-Panay grid, though critical during peak hours, is already being taken cared of after the approval of SOD," he said. "PGPP-1 was totally out on April 4, 2003 with still 80 MW from PGPP-2 on-line," Pacaņa, in his letter to VSOD, added.
PGPP-1, commissioned in 1983, operates with 20 production wells providing steam to the 112.5 megawatt NPC plant.
PGPP-2, operating since 1989, has an 80 MW capacity from 16 production wells. In 1993, Philippine National Oil Company-Energy Development Corporation commissioned the Nasuji modular power plant. Okoy-5 and Sogongon were subsequently synchronized into PGPP in 1994 and 1995 respectively.
Pacaņa said rehabilitation of PGPP-1 went on without having to shut down the power supply in the areas covered by the Cebu-Negros-Panay grid.
The rehabilitation works covered the replacement of the main steam isolation valve and actuator of the plant, replacement of the expansion bellows, replacement of two units of the MSIV packings, repair of leaks along the main steam line, derusting sand repainting of the take-off tower, servicing of the pressure relief valves, and inspection of the main steam line.
Negros Oriental serves as the midway supplier of power whenever Cebu and Panay have power insufficiency. In turn, Cebu also provides a part of Negros Oriental's power supply through submarine cable.
The Southern Negros Geothermal Production Field (SNGPF) is the second largest of the four geothermal fields operated by PNOC-EDC in the country. It has a total combined power capacity of 192.5 MW.
Located at the interior municipality of Valencia, about 21 kilometres northwest of Dumaguete City, the southern Negros geothermal reservation occupies about half of the peninsular arm of Negros Oriental or a total land area close to 133,000 hectares.
SNGPF is the first of the geothermal fields to distribute power supply across the sea. In October 1990, it installed submarine cables ro channel PGPP-1's power supply cross Guimaras Strait to the four provinces of neighbouring Panay island. Power produced in PGPP-2 is exported to Cebu island.
On peaks hours, SNGPF directs 75 percent of its produced electricity to Negros island and the remaining 25 percent is supplied to Panay. During off-peak hours, SNGPF's electricity is directed with 64 percent to Negros, 23 percent to Panay, and 13 percent to Cebu.
Royalties
As of October 21 since it started operation 20 years ago, PNOC-EDC has remitted a total of P492.2 million in royalty fees to the host communities including the Province of Negros Oriental. This is in addition to the P62.10 million franchise tax the province received from NPC from 1992-2001 and from EDC totaling P35.5 million as of today in the form of projects.
(April 17, 2003 issue)
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