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ZAMBOANGA CITY (MindaNews/27 February) – Rotational blackouts in the city have increased from two to four hours daily.
Engr. George Ledesma, Zamboanga City Electric Cooperative (Zamcelco) general manager, attributed the longer blackouts to the preventive maintenance shutdown of another coal-fired power plant of the Steag State Power Inc (SPI) in Villanueva, Misamis Oriental.
Ledesma said maintenance work on Steag 1 started last Monday and will be completed on the second week of March. The power plant has a capacity of 105 megawatts (MW).
Ledesma said Steag 1 was the second plant in Mindanao to be placed under preventive maintenance shutdown.
He said Steag 2, which also has the capacity of 105 MW, was also placed under preventive maintenance last February 19 and is set to be completed by March 2.
He said the maintenance shutdown of the Steag 1 and 2 has reduced power supply to the Mindanao grid by 210 MW, causing four-hour outages in the city.
Ledesma said the blackouts are being implemented by feeder. Zamcelco has a total of 24 feeders servicing more than 100,000 member-consumers.
He explained that every hour of blackout is equivalent to a power shortage of 4 MW, which means a total shortage of 16 MW for Zamcelco.
He said Zamcelco has a peak load demand of 78 MW. (MindaNews)