20 Apr Mindanao Rotating Power Outages Reduced to 2 Hours at Most
Image Source | www.tonex.com
Due to the severe drought caused by the El Niño phenomenon, the Mindanao grid remains being on a critical status. But even as it is, daily power interruptions have been cut from five hours to three to nearly two hours.
After one of the 150-megawatt units of Davao Light and Power Co. or DLPC‘s coal-fired power plant returned online on Monday which experienced an emergency shutdown on April 6 due to a boiler tube leak, the Aboitiz-owned company said that the power situation within it’s franchise had improved. With this, the duration of of the rotating brownouts in Mindanao would be decreased to two to three hours or at most, decreased to two hours, during the peak period (8:00AM to 8:00PM) and one hour during (7:00AM to 8:00AM and 8:00PM to midnight) which is the off-peak period. The DLPC will be expecting an additional supply of 50 megawatts on May 1 to alleviate the situation.
“With thin to no reserve capacity in Mindanao, any operating unit that will go on emergency shutdown will result immediately to rotating brownouts,” the company said.
The recent power interruptions are being caused by the compounding effects of both natural and mechanical issues. With El Niño affecting major hydropower plants in Mindanao, the recent emergency outages of two Agus plants and the shutdown of one of the units of a coal-fired power plant being owned by Therma South Inc. on April 6.
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