ONE of the country’s leading power generators said it would maximize
its capacity to lessen the shortage of power in Mindanao.

In a statement, Aboitiz Power (AP) announced that its diesel power barges in Agusan and Compostela Valley can deliver vital power to utilities to keep industries running as well as households lighted.

AP’s subsidiary Therma Marine Inc.’s (TMI) said in a statement that its power barges in Nasipit, Agusan del Norte and Maco, Compostela Valley have a total capacity of 200 megawatts (MW).

AP said that during the latest power shortage in Mindanao, the TMI barges provided vital energy to utilities like Davao Oriental Electric Cooperative (Doreco) and Davao del Norte Electric Cooperative (Daneco), among others.

Jovy Batiquin, TMI chief operating officer, said that although the traditional role of diesel power barges is to run for peak hours and provide ancillary service, they are often called upon to provide back-up power for the grid.

“The diesel power plants are designed to help the grid during peak hours as we are quick to run or provide voltage regulation and can be on standby for the rest of the time.” Batiquin said.

AP said that they make sure all its generating units are ready and available all the time so when the grid is short of power, customers can depend on the delivery of power when needed, one of the critical advantages of diesel-generating units.

More than half of Mindanao’s power supply comes from the Agus-Pulangui hydropower plants in Lanao and Bukidnon.
Earlier, the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) said that power shortage in Mindanao was recorded at about 100 MW.

“For those who do not have embedded power plants or back-up generation units, this means several hours of brownouts.” Batiquin said.

He said that many utilities have seen the advantages of buying power from TMI since they will only need the diesel barges for a few hours during the day or during emergency shortages and they will only pay the operator for the actual power used.

Batiquin said that with the economy of Mindanao growing faster than projected, the demand for power is also increasing. But the power supply is limited as major power plants in the region will take years to develop and build. Because of this, Mindanao will have to rely on power barges such as those owned by TMI.

The NGCP said the necessary curtailment of power supply that could result to scheduled brownouts in the entire Mindanao following the thin reserves and dispatchable power supply.

NGCP spokesperson Cynthia P. Alabanza said that power in Mindanao is very tenuous as reserve which is needed to maintain stability of power becomes very thin.

“Ideally, we need to have a 24 percent reserve of the actual load. Also lately, we do not have dispatchable supply which led to the issuance of red alert status,” she said.

At present Mindanao has a 150 megawatt deficiency in its peak period from 10 am to 5:30 pm and a 200 megawatt deficiency from 5:30 pm to 8:00 pm.

Alabanza explained some factors that cause power interruptions. One is when power supply cannot meet the demand, another factor is the scheduled maintenance of power plants which is usually set on days with low peak in demand.

With the scheduled maintenance of plants, NGCP recommends a schedule while the National Power Commission (Napocor) issues an official matrix that should be the basis for the curtailment schedule.
The NGCP spokesperson cannot tell as to how long will Mindanao suffer brownout schedules brought about by the curtailment process.

She explained that if NGCP is only to balance power supply based on scheduled maintenance of plants, then Mindanao wouldn’t need curtailment. But given that unscheduled maintenance of plants are so possible that might cause interruption and with the thin power reserves, thus, NGCP couldn’t tell as to how long these scheduled brownouts will last.
The grid company hopes that the additional 100 megawatt that may be provided for by the Iligan Diesel Power Plant could be of help and mitigate the power shortage.