Rotating brownouts back as Mindanao power plants go on the blink

Rotating brownouts again hounded Mindanao´s populous urban centers over the weekend as power curtailment was imposed grid-wide by the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines. (NGCP).

The power deficiency in the Mindanao Grid rocketed from 111 megawatts (MW) in Sept. 16 to 300 MW by Sept. 18 plunging large swaths of the island in darkness.

The power advisory from the Mindanao Regional Control Center (MRCC) in Iligan City advised that as contingency reserve in the grid dropped to zero, the whole system went on Red Alert.

The MRCC advisory reads: "Contingency reserve is zero due to planned outage of Pulangi IV hydroelectric power plant (HEP) Unit 1 (85MW) and Agus 6 Unit 1(20MW); emergency shutdown of Agus 2 Unit 1 (40MW); reduced capability of Agus and Pulangi 4 HEPs; non-operation of Aboitiz Power Therma Marine (APTM) 1 (96MW) and APTM 2 (96MW); and also due to also due to the operation deficiency and transmission line constraints affecting GSCC (General Santos Area Control Center) and DACC (Davao Area Control Center)."

The Cagayan Area Control Center (CACC) based in Carmen also advised that due to the 250MW curtailment grid-wide from 10AM to 10PM Friday, customers were advised to maintain the matrix for their respective load limit allocations.

"We have already shut down one of our furnaces since Wednesday depriving work for more than 50 of our contractual workers," the manager of a steel firm operating at the Phividec Industrial Estate-Misamis Oriental (Piemo) texted this paper.

NGCP earlier issued an evening advisory on Sept. 16 advising about an 111MW system wide power curtailment since the evening peak demand topped 1,209MW with only 1,098MW available from the grid.

Ironically, the brownouts arose just as the water level in Lake Lanao which drives the Agus hydroelectric plants was rising to its optimum operating elevation.

"The water level at Lake Lanao has breached 700.89 meters and we believe it would attain its optimum operating target level of 701.10 meters before year end, given present trends in the weather," said Engr. Jerese Irese Lagapa, department manager of Napocor´s Operations Planning Dept. (OPD) which controls the dispatch of electricity from the various power plants of the Mindanao power grid upon advise of the NGCP.

Jovy Batiquin, executive vice president and chief operations officer (COO) of Therma Marine Inc. (TMI) which owns and operates the APTM 1 and APTM 2 power barges (PBs) admitted he was also perplexed why the 200MW capacity of the two power barges formerly owned by Napocor had not been dispatched by NGCP despite the huge power curtailment.

"Our power barges are like you car parked in the garage with engine running and driver seated and ready to go," Batiquin said in reply to queries why the TMI power barges have not been dispatch despite the power curtailment during a presentation of the controversial Ancillary Services Power Agreement (ASPA) during the 2010 Mindanao Power Crisis Forum hosted by Xavier University (Ateneo de Cagayan) Sept. 16.

Batiquin said the two barges were ordered to dispatch only 48MW from 10AM-10PM Friday, Sept. 17 and none at all on Saturday, Sept. 18. The urban centers of Cagayan de Oro, Davao, General Santos, Iligan and Zamboanga experienced rotating brownouts from 2 1/2 to as long as 8 hrs. Saturday as the power curtailment rose from 200MW from 10AM-5PM to 300MW from 6-10PM.

"Perhaps it's because we are now on a strict ancillary service basis," Batiquin noted. "We would only be dispatched by NGCP if there is a breakdown in one of the Mindanao grid's power plants." As a dispatchable ancillary service, the two TMI barges can bring 200MW to the grid in 30 minutes from a cold start.

A wide cross section of power users in Mindanao including distribution utilities, electric cooperatives, directly connected industries and consumer groups have raised a hue and cry over the "rate shock" imposed by the two barges when power rates shot through the roof as a result of their operations during the latest power crisis earlier this year.

Power forum participants speculated the TMI power barges may not have been dispatched due to the growing amount of arrearages now said to be topping P300-million incurred by the NGCP as some electric cooperatives refused to pass on the higher transmission costs every time the TMI power barges operate.

Rotating brownouts again hit Southern Mindanao earlier this week following the scheduled commissioning of the Maramag-Kibawe 138-kilovolt transmission line by the NGCP and a call for voluntary load curtailment in Cotabato province, fuelling fears that a "scenario" was being surreptiously played out in Mindanao to pave the way for a price increase in generation and transmission tariffs. Both Napocor and NGCP have pending applications for rate hikes with the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC).

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