MikeLigalig.com

By JUNE S. BLANCO
Office of the Governor
   
  Bohol Governor Erico Aumentado Friday asked the National Transmission Corp. (TransCo) to
prioritize energizing Tagbilaran City and the resort island of Panglao in case
power from the Leyte-Bohol Interconnection Project (LBIP) goes off.

  This after Bohol experienced a blackout at 6:54 p.m. Friday – a time when most
people are having dinner. Power resumed at 7:13 p.m.

  Aumentado immediately called Engr. Eulogio Signe, TransCo-Bohol operations
superintendent (OS) on duty Friday to ensure that power disruption remains minimal
in the city which is the center of business being the province’s capital, and
Dauis and Panglao towns where tourism-related businesses flourish.
  Signe readily gave his assurance.

  Bohol is linked to Leyte via a submarine cable 17 kilometers long that is capable
of transmitting 100 megawatts of power from the Tongonan Geothermal Plant, through
Maasin City in Leyte, to Tugas Point in President Carlos P. Garcia island town in
Bohol and on to the “receiving” station in Barangay Imelda in Ubay town.

  Engr. Rolly Sumampong, Area Control Center (ACC) principal engineer reported that
the blackout was due to a trip off on the Maasin side.

  Trip-offs like this however do not last long so that while TransCo started its
diesel engines at the Bohol Diesel Power Plant (BDPP) in Dampas District also in
Tagbilaran, the ACC did not encourage its entering the system as it may cause
overload tripping instead. True to Sumampong’s calculated guess, the blackout
lasted for only 19 minutes.

  While BDPP generates the power, ACC controls the megawatts it lets into the system
and where the electricity will go. Bohol has three distributors – Bohol Electric
Cooperatives 1 and 2 (Boheco 1 and 2) and the Bohol Light Co., Inc. (BLCI), with
the latter servicing the city.
  Signe’s assurance, it turned out, was no big deal.

  Sumapong said as standard operating procedure (SOP), when the Leyte connection
bogs down for rather a long while, they energize Tagbilaran first, including the
Dampas substation that services Panglao island. Energizing the Tagbilaran feeders
and the Dampas substation augurs well for zero or minimal voltage problems.

  The city’s peak demand is during the night, at 13.2 megawatts (MW). The Dampas
substation services the needs of Boheco 1 that serves Panglao, among others.

  Of the 100 MW maximum that the submarine cable is capable of transmitting, only
around 40 MW so far reaches Bohol. Tongonan routes the 60 MW to Cebu that has a
greater power demand, said Engr. Bert Sheker, yesterday’s TransCo-Bohol OS on
duty.

  It would not be economically viable for TransCo to rely fully on LBIP. Bohol’s
load capacity from the BDPP stands at 16.1 MW maximum unless the generators are
just through undergoing preventive maintenance servicing (PMS) when the declared
capacity would stand at 18 MW.

  This output is supported by the Loboc Mini Hydroelectric Plant and the Hanopol
Hydroelectric Plant in Balilihan. Both can generate a maximum of 1.2 MW and 5 MW
respectively. During summer when water is scarce, its volume and flow cannot turn
the hydroelectric plants big turbines so that their outputs are reduced to only
300 kilowatts and zero, respectively.

  Another hydroelectric plant in Ewon, Sevilla town is still under construction
while a bigger one utilizing the Cantakoy Falls in Danao town is still being
evaluated by the National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA) after the
Bohol Provincial Development Council (PDC) that Aumentado chairs submitted it to
the Regional Development Council (RDC) of Central Visayas.

  Sheker however intimated that four more diesel generators, now in Olongapo City,
are slated to be delivered to Bohol. The units’ rated capacity stands at over 40
MW, he said.

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