Gov. Eugenio Jose Lacson said on Monday, March 4, that he hopes the completion of the Cebu-Negros-Panay (CNP) transmission upgrade will really improve the power situation in Negros Occidental.
He hopes it will mean less brownouts and blackouts for Negros Occidental, Lacson said.
“Let’s wait until the end of the month”, he said.
The governor, in reaction to the blackout that hit parts of Negros and Panay on Friday, March 1, said he does not want to totally blame the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines because it is also dependent on power suppliers.
The Department of Energy (DOE), in a statement Monday, reiterated that relief from the Panay power situation is less than a month away.
The Panay grid will be strengthened upon the completion of the Cebu-Negros-Panay (CNP) transmission upgrade by the end of March, it said.
The regular maintenance shutdown of the Palm Concepcion Power
Corporation (PCPC) will also be finished by the end of March., it added.
The DOE emphasized the need for generators, distribution utilities, and the system operator to continue cooperating to maintain the grid’s stability and to quickly recover from any power interruption.
While waiting for the completion of the transmission upgrade and maintenance of PCPC, the general public is encouraged to conserve energy, especially for the month of March, it added.
Panay Island is powered by four large coal power plants with a total capacity of 451 megawatts (MW) and nine smaller diesel/bunker and renewables with a total capacity of 220.3 MW, the DOE said.
On Friday night three units of Panay Energy Development Corp. went on shutdown resulting in a partial blackout of the Panay sub-grid and some parts of Negros, the DOE added.*