Offline Visayas power plants nearing return to operation

TWO KEY power plants which have been out of commission in recent weeks are returning online this month and in early July, Energy Undersecretary Mario S. Marasigan said at a briefing on Monday.

Mr. Marasigan said KEPCO SPC Power Corp. Unit 2 is set to return to operations on June 2 while Unit 3 of the Panay Energy Development Corp. facility will resume operations by July 3.

Units 1 and 2 of Therma Visayas, Inc., meanwhile, are targeted to be operational by August.

The multiple outages of Visayan plants was the main factor behind the Visayas grid’s 17 yellow alerts in May.

The National Grid Corp. of the Philippines issued a yellow alert over the Visayas grid on Monday, as the margin between available power and projected demand thins. Yellow alerts are issued when the power reserve margin falls below a set threshold.

“Our main concern as far as the grid system is concerned is the Visayas,” Mr. Marasigan said, adding that the actual supply at the moment is “quite below the peak.”

He said that electricity demand is currently 2,700 megawatts (MW), exceeding supply of 2,044 MW and forcing the Visayas grid to import power from the other grids.

According to the Department of Energy (DoE), the link between the Mindanao and Visayas grids is currently operating at its full transfer capacity of 450 MW.

Meanwhile, the Luzon grid continues to operate normally, with supply at 16,614 MW against demand of 14,534 MW, for a reserve level of more than 2,000 MW. 

However, Mr. Marasigan noted that hydropower generation in Luzon has been affected by below-normal water levels in key reservoirs. — Sheldeen Joy Talavera