DAVAO CITY—Mindanao is on a tight energy watch going toward the holidays, as the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) announced a disturbing round of supply curtailment since December 9 due to a reported receding water level at the Lake Lanao in Central Mindanao.
The Davao Light and Power Co. (DLPC) said NGCP has announced dwindling supply of power going at 200 megawatts (MW) by Monday, with the DLPC franchise getting a slash of 40 MW from its regular supply of 355 MW from the Mindanao grid.
“It began with a curtailment of only 9 MW last December 9. Now it’s 40 MW,” said Arturo Milan, executive vice president and COO of DLPC.
Rodger S. Velasco, company vice president for engineering, said the tipping point for the company to begin rotational brownouts was at 250-MW shortage on a grid-wide basis.
“By then, all our standby plants and additional supply from other sources would not be adequate to prevent forced blackouts,” he said.
DLPC said NGCP’s text advisory on load curtailment “is due to the reduced capacities of the National Power Corp.[Napocor]-Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp.’s Pulangi 4, and Agus 2 and 4 hydroelectric plants.”
The 200-MW shortage on Monday was already expected to send a large portion of Mindanao into rotational brownouts due to lack of backup power sources in their localities.
The curtailment came at a time when Mindanao was supposed to usher in a year of surplus power by the middle of the year, when the Aboitiz-owned 300-MW coal-fired power plant in western Davao City would begin to operate by the middle of the year, and the Alsons-owned 200-MW coal-fired power plant in Maasim, Sarangani, would also begin operation by the third quarter.
Milan said the DLPC franchise would receive an additional 50 MW from the Aboitiz coal plant.
NGCP said it could not provide timely report on the decreasing water level at the lake, whose water that drains at the Agus River power up the six hydroelectric power plants along the river. These plants, along with the lone power plant in Maramag, Bukidnon, along the Pulangui River, supply 53 percent of the total electricity requirement of the Mindanao grid.
A Monday update of the Napocor web site said the Lanao Lake water level was 701.06 meters above sea level (masl), a slight dip, though, from its normal high level of 701.1 masl. The critical level is pegged at 699.15 masl.
The Pulangui power plant was taking water from the Pulangui River that receded to 282.44 masl, nearing the critical level of 282 masl.