CANE POINTS: Power Generation, Not Distribution Nor Transmission, is the problem

This is what Cane Points has been saying all along about the Manual Load Dropping or rotational brownouts which hounded the Visayas for the past months and consequently increased power rates for Visayas consumers.

The problem lies not in the distribution system operated by the different distribution utilities and electric cooperatives in the Visayas. It is not the fault of your local distribution utility or electric cooperative.

The problem lies not in the transmission system operated by the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines. It is not the fault of the NGCP. The problem lies in the lack of power supply due to the simultaneous outages of major power generating plants.

And this was confirmed during last Saturday’s (October 3) Joint House of Representatives Committees Hearing on the Visayas Power Crisis conducted in Bacolod City and initiated by Bacolod City Lone District Rep. and House Deputy Speaker Albee Benitez.

Committees involved were the Energy Committee headed by Rep. Jose Alvarez (Palawan-2nd District), Visayas Development Committee headed by Rep. Lolita Javier (Leyte-2nd District) and Legislative Franchises Committee headed by Rep. Jeffrey Ferrer (Negros Occidental-4th District) but represented in the hearing by the Committee Vice Chairperson Antonino Roman III (Bataan-1st District).

Heading the list of invited resource speakers was Energy Secretary Sharon Garin, who had her hands more than full answering the almost inquisitory queries from obviously exasperated Visayas solons directly affected by the MLDs.

Citing NGCP data from September 18, Sec Garin explained that the Visayas actual power supply was 2,258 MW in the afternoon but only 1,942 MW in the evening. (Apparently, the drop in available supply was caused by the unavailability of solar-powered systems.)

On the other hand, the peak demand on the same date was 2,621 MW in the afternoon and 2,457 MW in the evening, resulting to a power shortage of 363 MW in the afternoon and 515 MW in the evening. This huge imbalance between actual supply and peak demand, as illustrated in the September 18 highlights, resulted to the MLDs which consumers experienced from mid-August to September.

There is really a shortage of baseload power in the Visayas, particularly in Negros, according to Garin.

Negros actually has excess power, mainly from solar generation, during daytime, and Negros even exports its excess power to other islands. However, when power demand peaks from late afternoon to early evening at the same time when solar power starts declining, Negros has to import power from other islands, primarily from Panay.

Panay gets most of its power from the Panay Energy Development Corporation (PEDC) 300 MW coal-fired power plant in Iloilo City and the Palm Concepcion Power Corporation (PCPC) 135 MW coal-fired power plant in Concepcion, Iloilo.

Cebu has an abundance of coal-fired power plants. It has the Therma Visayas Inc (TVI) 340 MW power plant in Toledo City, the Cebu Energy Development Corporation (CEDC) 246 MW power plant also in Toledo City, and the KEPCO SPC Power Corporation (KSPC) 200 MW power plant in Naga City.

As Negrense consumers learned during the previous MLD season, an outage in one major power plant in Panay or Cebu plunges Negros into rotational darkness. And consumers sarcastically ask their friends, “Ti, nagdaug ka sa raffle subong nga adlaw?”

Like Negros, the neighboring islands of Cebu and Panay are experiencing exponential growth in energy demand, and the projected demand growth is outpacing the existing power capacities of both Cebu and Panay. Where will Negros source its power needs?

Energy Chair Rep. Alvarez asked Sec Garin why Visayas continues to suffer from power outages, considering that Visayas is interconnected with Luzon and Mindanao. “The grid is functioning naman,” the lady from Iloilo replied.

Garin explained that NGCP’s transmission system continues to function, but Mindanao could not export power to the Visayas, because Mindanao also faced the same problem of power shortage due to outages of some power plants during the same period. With the simultaneous outages of several power plants, there is limited to non-existent power to export to the Visayas, she added. Senior Deputy House Speaker Rep. Ferdinand Hernandez (South Cotabato-2nd District) mentioned that there has been no MLDs after several power plants returned to service.

“Kaya walang grid alerts, kasi nakabalik na ang mga power plants, meaning may supply na. Malinaw na hindi transmission ang issue,” Hernandez pointed out.*