Very Hot Summer! ROTATING BROWNOUTS TO CONTINUE; COAL PLANT REPAIR TO TAKE 3 MONTHS

By Euan Paulo C. Añonuevo, InterAksyon.com

MANILA – Mindanao residents should brace for a very hot summer, as the operator of the lone coal-fed power plant on the island admitted that repairs would take at most three months or until June.

According to Steag State Power Inc, repair of the company’s 210-megawatt coal plant will require eight to 12 weeks.

“Our priority now is to restore the units back on line and ease up the critical power supply condition of Mindanao,” Carsten Evers, Steag State Power plant manager, said, adding that, “Employees are working round-the-clock to restore the power plant back to the grid.”

The company earlier said that the loss of the plant’s output would lead to two- or three-hour rotating brownouts during peak hours, or between 6-9 p.m., depending on how distribution utilities or electric cooperatives manage demand.

Steag State Power’s coal plant went offline last February 27 after several generating facilities tripped, cutting off power to Mindanao for half a day.

Initial findings from a Department of Energy (DOE) investigation pointed to the state-owned Agus 1 hydroelectric power plant in Marawi City as the source of the trip.

To help ascertain its cause, the plant’s operator, National Power Cor. (Napocor), has already submitted the data logs of its power plants in Mindanao to the DOE. The information contained in the data logs will identify the sequence of events that led to the tripping of the plants.

“[Napocor] will respect whatever findings the joint committee assigned on the investigation may come up with,” Gladys Cruz-Sta. Rita, Napocor president, said.