A day after the New Year’s celebrations, a widespread power outage in the Western Visayas region severely damaged parts of Negros as well as the islands of Panay and Guimaras.
The National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) attributed the widespread outage in a statement on unplanned maintenance shutdowns of the biggest Panay power units.
The Iloilo city government decided to send workers home early on Tuesday and cancel courses the next day due to the power outage. Other local government organizations did the same.
The Department of Energy (DOE) and the NGCP were asked to resolve the electricity issue by Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas.
Treñas stated that the incident would be investigated right away by the infrastructure development committee of the Regional Development Council.
Prioritizing critical installations like hospitals, MORE Power and Electric Co., the city’s only power distribution company, was able to activate 29.21% of its customers by 7:18 p.m.
Ilonggos were shocked by the blackouts they encountered on the second day of the year, and many expressed their disappointment on social media. They bemoaned the oppressive heat, the disruption of work, and the spoiling of the celebration leftovers from the day before.
The interruption led the NGCP to restate its need for improved energy resource planning as a component of the industry-wide strategy it has been advocating to meet the nation’s power requirements.
Panay was cut off from the rest of the Visayas grid due to the outage.
The grid operator stated, “We stress the need for better planning to ensure sufficient generation per island, with a well-balanced mix of fuel and technology.”
451 MW, or 68.75 percent of the total 656 MW in-island generation, was lost to the Panay sub-grid as a result of the tripping of three of the major power generating units and the scheduled maintenance shutdown of a 150-megawatt power generating unit.
According to NGCP, a contributing factor in the shortage of power was the maintenance shutdown and deration of facilities that were not part of the Department of Energy’s (DOE) authorized grid operation and maintenance schedule.
As of 9:30 p.m. on January 2, it stated that just four out of thirteen power plants were providing 40.3 MW, or 6.2 percent of Panay’s 83.5 MW demand.
About 300 MW are required by the grid to stabilize the system.
“To avoid frequent voltage failures, we will be cautiously restoring loads by matching loads to recovered generation. The NGCP is prepared to send power as soon as it becomes available. The NGCP stated, “People need to realize that we are power transmitters; we are not power producers.
It claimed that the elements listed in its May letter to the Iloilo city government still contributed to the power outage.
The grid operator emphasized in its letter that lawmakers must undertake more thorough resource optimization planning in order to guarantee that all potential solutions to power system issues are considered and that the best ones are given priority.
Given the Panay sub-grid’s architecture and its reliance on variable energy sources in Negros in the event that it loses internally generated power, it was stated that there is a need to provide enough non-variable sources to stabilize the system.
“To accommodate renewable energy sources, especially the efficient use of cutting-edge technologies like energy storage systems, the NGCP recommends a review of the Philippine Grid Code,” the statement read.
Internal problem
On January 2, at 2:19 p.m., the blackouts began.
According to the NGCP, an internal problem caused the Panay Energy Development Corp. Unit 1 to trip around 12:06 p.m.
Panay became isolated from the other Visayas at 2:19 p.m. after the PEDC Unit 2 and other plants tripped.
Since December 19, PEDC’s Unit 3, which has a 150 megawatt capacity, has been undergoing preventive maintenance.
Apart from the power units 1 and 2 of the PEDC
A few more power plants, such as Palm Concepcion Power Corp., also failed.
Customers of the Central Negros Electric Cooperative Inc. were also impacted by the power outage.
Respect your obligations
The DOE reminded NGCP of its obligations as a system operator to maintain the grid’s dependability and supply security.
The system operator “could have exercised, in a better manner, its responsibility in balancing the grid,” according to a DOE statement.
The DOE stated that because the system operator is always keeping an eye on the grid, NGCP can quickly work with power plants to make sure that their individual unit protection and control settings won’t create grid instability that could result in blackouts.
Due to the simultaneous tripping of power plants that caused multiple power interruptions affecting other power plants and distribution utilities, Panay was unfortunately isolated from the rest of the Visayas grid on Tuesday. DOE Undersecretary Rowena Cristina Guevara stated that NGCP is in a position to anticipate system disturbances like what happened on Tuesday.
According to the DOE, it is in constant communication with the NGCP, the impacted power plants, and the distribution utilities regarding the state of the power plants and the anticipated timetable for power supply restoration.
Regarding the power outage that impacted the Panay sub-grid, the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) stated that it is working with the DOE and NGCP in coordination.
To aid in its investigation of the occurrences, the ERC has asked NGCP and the relevant generation companies for more information.
ERC chair and CEO Monalisa Dimalanta stated, “The ERC understands the inconvenience this situation has caused to the consumers of Panay and we assure the public that every effort is being made to restore power as quickly as possible.”
As of yesterday afternoon, there were still power outages for customers of MORE Electric and Power Corp., Iloilo Electric Cooperatives 1, 2, and 3, and Guimaras Electric Cooperative Inc.
Sen. Jinggoy Estrada, meantime, stated that government organizations, electricity providers, and pertinent parties ought to give priority to and move quickly to resolve the Panay power problem.
Given that Tuesday’s power outage affected numerous provinces in Western Visayas, Estrada said the seriousness of the situation in Panay could not be emphasized.
According to Estrada, “the lack of electricity not only harmed homes but also severely damaged hospitals, businesses, and other essential services that depend on a consistent power source.”
Look into it
Representative Julienne Baronda of Iloilo City urged for a House investigation into the power disruptions that greeted the Ilonggos on January 2.
The House committee on energy should look into the occurrence, according to Baronda, “in the exercise of its congressional oversight function to safeguard public welfare.”
“This new incident took place, distressing the Ilonggos,” Baronda said. “The committee on energy has yet to conclude its investigation in support of legislation on the April 2023 region-wide power outages relative to House Resolution 933, which we authored along with fellow Ilonggo representatives.”
