22 Feb Shortage in Power Supply Will Cause Mindanao Grid’s Total Shutdown – A Warning from DLPC
In the I-Speak Media Forum happened last Thursday, February 18, 2016, the DLP Spokesperson, Ross Luga said that the Davao Light Power Corporation is enforced to implement a brownout of 2-3 hours schedule due to electricity shortage.
During the forum, Luga cautioned that pushing to supply the limited electricity from generation sources just to meet a constant power demand may cause to Mindanao Grid’s Total Shutdown.
This can be one of the scariest things to happen in Mindanao this year, wherein lots of industries and residences will surely be affected.
As Luga have tackled about the power shortage, he also admitted that DLPC cannot serve everyone with power.
Due to the El Niño phenomenon which dried up the waters of Bukidnon’s Pulangi River and Lake Lanao (got critical level in 2010 and going down from 699.66 to 699.34 meters), the remaining electricity supply we have is in a shortfall of 60-70 megawatts (MW).
Mentioned also by Luga, there are already 85% or 68 provinces in the Philippines have suffered drought based to Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA). To specify some of the affected areas around Mindanao, Zamboanga and North Cotabato were placed in a state of calamity just last January because of the El Niño’s unfavorable impact.
Not just that, hydroelectric power have said to be the most afflicted from the adversity due to lack of water sources and El Niño also caused power generation suppliers to decrease their electricity supplies.
To name some of our chief power suppliers that had reduced power supplies, here are as follows:
*National Power Corporation (NPC) –> Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corporation (December 2015 – January 2016) àThey reduced their supply contract to 164 MW out of 289 MW
*HEDCOR Sibulan –> Out of 52 MW as specified on their contract, they only supplied 38 MW
*Davao Light Power Corporation (DLPC) –> Instead of the fixed capacity of 63 MW, they only able to supply 32 MW from the Bajada Power Plant.
Having a list of those huge power source dropdowns from the biggest power suppliers, Luga asked everyone and said, “Can you imagine the decrease in the supply coming from our biggest supplier?”
Furthermore, DLPC will still serve their power supply whenever available even though rotational brownouts schedules are already set to avoid power interruption as they are currently adjusting agreements from their power suppliers, namely:
*Therma Marine Inc. (a 300 MW plant in Binugao, Toril) –> DLPC had contracted them with 100 MW
*Western Mindanao Power Inc. (Zamboanga) –> DLPC had contracted them with 80 MW
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