Mindanao 3-hour brownouts to continue

MANILA, Philippines – Mindanao will continue to experience 2- to 3-hour rotating brownouts as repair of a major power plant accounting for a fifth of the region’s energy supply would take up to 3 months.

Steag State Power Inc. (SPI) said Thursday, March 6 it would be able to resume operations of its 210-megawatt (MW) coal plant in 8 to 12 weeks. The plant’s two units went offline during the Mindanao-wide power failure on February 27.

“The indicative duration for the restoration of the units is estimated from 8 to 12 weeks based on the initial findings of the on-going technical evaluation,” the company said in a statement.

SPI’s power plant is currently Mindanao’s biggest in terms of capacity. Both of its units, with generating capacity of 105 MW each, sustained damage to their turbine-generators during the blackout in Mindanao.

SPI plant manager Dr. Carsten Evers said that their personnel are working round-the-clock to put the units back online.

“Our priority now is to restore the units back on line and ease up the critical power supply condition of Mindanao,” he said.

He added that SPI is coordinating closely with the Department of Energy, the National Power Corporation, and the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines in addressing the concern.

The blackout occurred at 3:53 a.m. on February 27 after a line tripped at the Agus 1 power plant in Lanao del Norte. Another line tripping incident occurred at the Pulangi hydro power plant and immediately after, SPI’s plant also tripped.

Except for SPI’s plant, all power plants in Mindanao are now operating.

Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho Petilla said that power in Mindanao is only 80-85% restored in the absence of the SPI plant. – Rappler.com