MANILA – The Department of Energy (DOE) assured the public of the stability of the grid system in Panay Island and its neighboring provinces, dispelling concerns following the January 2 blackout. During a weekly forum held in Quezon City, DOE Assistant Secretary Mario Marasigan highlighted the department's ongoing efforts to monitor and ensure a stable power supply in the region.
According to the Philippines News Agency, the current situation of the grid system is stable, with no shortage of supply. He emphasized that the DOE conducts half-hourly monitoring to maintain this stability. Marasigan also mentioned that Panay Island has been capable of exporting power to Negros at certain times.
Addressing the issue of power outages, Marasigan clarified that the island has not experienced any rotational brownouts since the January 2 incident. He explained that a recurrence of such a situation would only prompt advisories for manual load dropping if one or two plants face operational issues. The only reported outage was from a single plant.
In an effort to further enhance the region's power infrastructure, Marasigan expressed optimism about the completion of the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines' (NGCP) Cebu-Negros-Panay (CNP) Stage 3 Project. This initiative aims to increase the power transfer capacity between Negros and Panay, potentially boosting it from the current 180 megawatts to 400 megawatts. The project is seen as a key solution to prevent future outages by providing a robust power transfer line between the islands.
The NGCP has committed to completing this critical enhancement by the end of March, offering a significant boost to the region's power grid reliability and capacity.