DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 19 Feb) – Dabawenyos, it’s for real: the two-hour rotating brownouts will start on Saturday (Feb. 21), according to the Davao Light and Power Co. (DLPC).
In a statement, DLPC said they have implemented the rotating power outages “due to the tight supply situation” caused by the preventive maintenance shutdown of Steag State Power Inc.’s coal-fired power plant in Misamis Oriental.
The power outages will last until March 2.
DLPC said the outages could fall within 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. or 5 p.m. to 9 p.m., but only up to two hours at a time, but only “for a maximum of tow hours.” It added that the exact time could not be determined yet, depending on the level of curtailment imposed by the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP).
As of Thursday, data from NGCP showed that the Mindanao grid was already short by 103 megawatts as Steag began to conduct preventive maintenance shutdown. The grid has a system capacity of 1,271 megawatts against the system peak of 1,374 megawatts.
Steag is doing maintenance activities to its two coal-fired power plants with combined capacity of 210 megawatts. Its first unit began preventive maintenance today (Feb. 19) until March 2 while the second would start Feb. 21 up to March 16.
“These maintenance activities are part of the company’s commitment to sustain quality customer service by way of ensuring that the power plant is able to optimize its long-term operations and produce power needed to sustain Mindanao’s growth and development,” Steag plant manager Carsten Evers said earlier in a statement.
“We hope to complete the maintenance activities as planned and within schedule and to bring the units back to grid as soon as possible,” Evers added.
