MinDA calls for Congress probe on long brownouts

The Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA) is seeking a congressional inquiry on the rotating daily power outages in the island, which “should not be that (bad) because there is an untapped 65 megawatts from state-owned hydropower plants,” an official said.

Sec. Luwalhati Antonino, MinDA chairman, said the House of Representatives committees on Energy and Mindanao Affairs will investigate on Tuesday the power situation in the south and the curtailment scheme implemented by the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP).

“We understand that NGCP’s action prompted distributors, mostly rural electric cooperatives, to implement two to four hours’ daily brownout,” she said, adding that in Region XII, brownouts would sometimes last for 10 hours.

NGCP, the private operator of the country’s power transmission network, earlier said the curtailment was due to generation deficiencies of power producers in Mindanao.

Spokesman Cynthia Alabanza said that if the power supply from the plants is not enough to address the demands of all power customers connected to the grid, NGCP implements load curtailment to maintain the power grid’s security and reliability.

The level of curtailment is based on the matrix of load to be maintained as issued by the Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. and the National Power Corp., according to her.

In seeking the inquiry, Antonino also noted that the Napocor’s Agus 2 and Pulangi hydropower plants have a combined 65 megawatts (MW) or more untapped capacity that could sustain demand within a few yours during peak loads.

She said Agus has an installed capacity of 180 MW but only 90 MW is being transmitted to the Mindanao grid. Also, Pulangi has an installed capacity of 255 MW but only 180-200 MW is being dispatched.

Antonino said Pulangi’s installed capacity can still be increased if dredging is done to optimize its operation.

Similarly, Agus 2’s output could be further stretched to a level that will not violate environmental policy on the operation of the plant or a level that will not cause flooding at Balo-I area.

Although it is not yet clear if the 65 MW is the reserved power for Mindanao, Antonino said this can be utilized during peak hours when demand surges.

Power generation in Mindanao has been steadily increasing at an average annual growth rate of 4.7 percent from 2002 to 2009. In the second quarter of 2010, the average and peaking capabilities of the hydropower plants dropped to 771 MW and 860 MW, respectively, resulting to brownouts reaching 4-6 hours daily in several areas.

The island’s power supply status remained under “red alert” with an 80-MW to 100-MW deficiency as reported by NGCP, MinDA said. PNA