The Department of Energy on Saturday, March 2, said the Panay power grid will be strengthened with the completion of the Cebu-Negros-Panay transmission upgrade, and the Palm Concepcion Power Corporation (PCPC) regular maintenance shutdown by the end of March.
The DOE issued the assurance following blackouts that hit part of Negros and Panay on Friday night, March 1, plunging thousands of Western Visayas residents into darkness.
Wennie Sancho, Power Watch secretary general, said the partial blackouts Friday night were “another manifestation of the irresponsibility of NGCP (National Grid Corporation of the Philippines) in monitoring the generating plants’ preventive maintenance status, whether planned or unplanned”.
Sancho said consumers should manifest their opposition on the brownouts and blackouts in Western Visayas
“We want Congress to focus on its investigation on the frequency of the disturbances,” he said referring to the blackouts on April 27 to 29, 2023, Jan 21 this year and on Friday,
“This has been a consistent burden on the part of consumers in Western Visayas, Sancho said.
“Congress must put an end to our inconvenience and sacrifices,” he said.
The DOE, in its statement Saturday, said 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.
Currently, one of the large coal power plants, PCPC, is under regular maintenance shutdown until March 30, it said.
Three units of PEDC went on shutdown resulting in a partial blackout of the Panay sub-grid and some parts of Negros Friday night, the DOE said.
Long-term solutions, such as the energization of several renewable and conventional power plants and the completion of transmission projects to support the power generation projects and the growth of the load centers, are in the pipeline, the DOE said.
“By the end of March, the Panay grid will be strengthened by the completion of the Cebu-Negros-Panay transmission upgrade, and the PCPC regular maintenance shutdown will be finished. In the meantime, the Department of Energy reiterates the need for cooperation among the generators, distribution utility, and the system operator in Panay,” the DOE said.
“The general public is also encouraged to conserve energy while we await the completion of the transmission upgrade and maintenance of PCPC by the end of March,” it added.*