The Department of Energy on Saturday said Panay Island maintains a secure electricity supply amid the temporary shutdown of a power plant on Jan. 17, with normal operations resuming shortly thereafter.
“Currently, as I mentioned earlier, our grid system is stable. We have ample supply with no shortages, and we monitor the situation every 30 minutes. Additionally, Panay continues to export power to Negros during certain hours,” Energy Assistant Secretary Mario Marasigan said during a news forum in Quezon City.
On Wednesday, Unit 3 of the Panay Energy Development Corp., a major power generating plant with a capacity of 150 megawatts, faced a boiler tube leak.
Marasigan explained the situation arose due to one plant going offline, the same plant that was also offline on Jan. 2 that cause the Panay-wide blackout.
To prevent a repeat of the Jan. 2 situation, in case one or two more plants encounter issues, they will issue advisories for manual or tripping measures.”
Panay had a stable energy generation operation, except on Jan. 2, when the region experienced a prolonged blackout due to high power demand.
When asked about rotational brownouts in Panay, the DOE official clarified there were no rotational brownouts except during the temporary shutdown of the involved plant.
The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP), the system operator, worked to stabilize the situation by designating areas for necessary preparations in case rotational brownouts were needed through manual load dropping, the energy official said.
Panay Island boasts of more than 400 megawatts of power supply, slightly under the demand of around 420 megawatts, according to Marasigan.
In terms of renewable energy contribution to the island, Marasigan noted that 20 megawatts are sourced from wind energy, along with an additional 50 megawatts generated by Guimaras wind power.
Furthermore, 8 megawatts of energy are derived from hydropower-generating facilities.
