(PNA file photo)
ILOILO CITY – The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) has encouraged the public to be extra conscious of their electricity usage this holiday season, especially with the impending preventive maintenance schedule of one of the generating plants of Panay Energy Development Corporation (PEDC) of the Global Business Power Corporation (GBP) this month.
Reagahn Alcantara, lead specialist of the government relations and regional affairs division of the Public Relations Department of the NGCP, said that in case the PEDC will push through with the shutdown, there will be a full dispatch of all the other power plants, including the utilization of the 180 megawatts capacity submarine cable between Negros and Panay.
He warned they may opt to do a rotational brownouts or manual load droppings should the power supply became insufficient while the demand is higher.
“That is allocated per distribution utility or cooperatives. Usually, it occurs during peak times. So, there is an allocation based on the contracting capacity of each distribution utility,” he said in an interview on Wednesday.
Data presented by the NGCP during its Power 101 briefing in October this year showed the afternoon peak demand of Panay Island is 486 megawatts (MW) and 453 MW in the evening, while the generating capacity could reach up to 611. 5 megawatts.
GBP First vice president for Panay Operations Antonio Cabalhug, in a media conference on Tuesday, said they had a scheduled shutdown of their PEDC 3 for the annual preventive maintenance evening of Monday.
“We are supposed to down the 150 (MW) but because of the urgent request of the NGCP last night, we are now targeting probably a week to postpone,” he said.
PEDC 3 generates 150 MW, which is more than 25 percent of daily average power demand of Panay.
“I cannot speak for NGCP, but they are telling us that we are in a very critical position if we shut down last night. I don’t know what will happen in the next days,” he said.
Alcantara said they are “working out something with them” like a possibility for the PEDC to undergo the preventive maintenance event without shutting down the unit and just a reduction of their output. (PNA)
