CEBU – Governor Hilario Davide III has assured Cebuanos that there is a sufficient supply of electricity in Cebu and according to the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines there is also enough power for the province.
Abner Bardoquillo, head of the NGCP Network System Operation Division, said the Cebu transmission lines are also connected with other parts of the Visayas and even Luzon. The Visayas grid can either collect from or send available excess power to the Luzon grid, he said.
“We are an interconnected grid so we have enough supply,” Bardoquillo said.
Despite the assurances, the current contingency power reserve in Cebu is only 40 to 80 megawatts (MW) which indicates a yellow alert level.
NGCP said the power plants are asked not to hold preventive maintenance in the months of April and May.
Davide met with power stakeholders in the region following an outage on February 19 and the eight-hour power blackout also hit Samar, Leyte, and Bohol.
Energy officials claimed the power outage pointed to any electricity shortfall in the Visayas grid.
Antonio Labios, Department of Energy regional director, said the blackout was caused by an instrument transformer explosion in Naga City substation of Cebu Diesel Power Plant 1.
The incident, he said, disconnected the power supply of Korean Electric Company SPC Power Corporationin Naga City and Cebu Energy Development Corporation in Toledo City to the grid.
Bardoquillo said they already have short-term and long-term plans to avoid recurrence of the low voltage.
Roger Lim, president of East Asia Utilities Corporation, said the problem in the Naga substation should never have cascaded into the other NGCP transmission lines. The lines also connect Cebu to Leyte, thus the power outage was also experienced in the area.
Davide was also concerned if Cebu has enough power approaching summer since it is when the demand normally rises.
Labios said they are expecting to increase the grid’s power reserve by 264 MW from the plants of Kepco, CEDC, and Philippine Energy Development Corporation in Panay.
Kepco’s 100 MW unit has been undergoing preventive maintenance.
“Barring any major power plant nga maguba (that has malfunctioned) and the operation is normal, naa man ta gihapoy maigo nga (we have enough) supply,” Labios said. (Xerxes Alkuino)