CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews / 08 May) — A power turbine of the STEAG State Power went back online early Wednesday night but the added 105-MW electricity has yet to be felt around the energy-starved Mindanao grid.
Jerome Soldevilla, STEAG communications officer said the turbine, Unit 2 went back online at around 1846 hours or 6:46 p.m. Wednesday night, a day ahead of its scheduled resumption.
“One hundred five megawatts (of electricity) is now added to the Grid,” Soldevilla said.
The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) started distributing the much-needed electricity to the Mindanao grid at around 8:20 p.m. last night.
“We can see whether this added electricity will have a real impact in the coming days,” he said.
But doubts remain whether it would give a much-needed relief to the power-starve Mindanao consumers.
According to the NGCP website, as of 6 a.m. on May 7, Mindanao’s power situation outlook showed a system capacity at only 822-MW for a peak demand of 1,211 MW. The 389-MW deficit forced six to seven hour rotational brownouts in major cities like Cagayan de Oro and Davao.
With STEAG’s 105-MW added evening of May 7, the NGCP website’s power situation outlook as of 6 a.m. of May 8 showed Mindanao’s system capacity at 873-MW for a peak demand of 1,227 or a deficit of 354-MW
STEAG State Power earlier scheduled the resumption of its Unit 2 turbine for May 8.
The power company operates the lone coal plant producing 210 megawatts in Villanueva, Misamis Oriental.
Soldevilla said the other turbine, Unit 1, will also resume operations by June 1.
Both turbines conked out during a Mindanao-wide fault in the power grid last Feb. 27, 2014. (Froilan Gallardo / MindaNews)
