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Davao Light imposes four-hour power cut off
By Lilian C. Mellejor

DAVAO CITY, July 30 (PNA) -- Davao Light and Power Co.(DLPC) started Thursday imposing a maximum of three to four hours of rotating power interruptions in this city and franchise areas in Davao del Norte.

This developed after the Therma South Inc. (TSI) coal plant shut down for an unscheduled repair. The TSI coal plant is still under commissioning stage.

Davao Light gets 60 megawatts from TSI to mitigate the power deficit for the past weeks. With 60MW lost, that would mean four hours of blackout, DLPC Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, Arturo Milan said.

“TSI will shut down anytime today (Thursday). It is still under a commissioning stage and will do a lot of adjustments. This is beyond DLPC's control,” Milan said at the presentation of the 2014 report on the Economic Performance of Davao Region at Ritz Hotel on Thursday.

Milan said Davao Light was receiving 163 megawatts (MW) from National Power Corp. (NPC) – Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management (PSALM), which was below the 275-contracted average demand. The peak demand reached 326 MWs.

Since TSI is still in the commissioning stage, it is expected that it will trip 80-90 percent of the time since it is not easy to connect to the grid.

Just last week, DLPC has increased the duration of its power interruption from a maximum of one to two hours after the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) advised an increase in the power supply shortage in Mindanao from 60 MWs to 130 MWs.

Milan said TSI’s 60 MWs eased the power outages while STEAG State Power plant remained offline as it underwent an emergency shutdown from July 18 to Aug. 16 on one unit coal-fired plant at Barangay Villanueva, Misamis Oriental.

He also said Pulangi and Agus Hydroelectric plants were also not working due to low water level while the Mt. Apo source had shut down since July 18.

In a press statement, DLPC said increase in power outages was necessary to avoid breakdown of the entire distribution system, which happens when the demand is higher than what is being supplied.

Corporate Communications Officer Rossano Luga said DLPC continued to implement its contingency measures in order to cushion the impact of the supply shortage.

Davao Light is running its standby Bajada Power Plant, optimizing on its embedded Sibulan and Talomo Hydropower plants and supply agreement with TMI. It is also activating its Interruptible Load Program (ILP).

Milan said Davao Light was running its 33-MW Bajada plant and it was also receiving 30 MWs from TMI, 37 MWs from Hedcor and 38 MW from ILP.

“We know that Mindanao does not have reserve so that is the situation now,” Milan said. (PNA)

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