METRO Cebu suffered rotating brownouts yesterday after the Cebu Thermal Power Plant 1 bogged down, reducing the power supply to the Cebu-Negros-Panay (CNP) grid.
Joel Gaviola, Department of Energy (DOE) public relations officer who is based in Manila, said they are still waiting for a report on why the thermal plant, which is maintained and operated by SPC Power Corp., stopped operating.
Although the two 84-megawatt coal-fired power plants in Toledo City have been tested and are finished, they still cannot supply power to the grid because they have yet to be turned over by the contractor, Formosa Heavy Industries Inc., to the Cebu Energy Development Corp. (CEDC), Gaviola said.
Gaviola said from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m. yesterday, the power deficiency in
the CNP grid was placed at 130 megawatts.
The first of the brownouts hit several parts of Liloan and Consolacion towns and Mandaue City at 9:03 a.m. Another brownout hit several parts of Cebu City and Mandaue City at 9:15 a.m. The brownout spread to Talisay City and Minglanilla and Naga towns at 9:26 a.m.
The brownouts lasted one-and-a-half hours.
DOE Visayas Director Antonio Labios did not answer several calls from Sun.Star Cebu. (EOB)