NGCP Calls for Conscious Energy Use During Holiday Season Amid Maintenance of Power Plant

ILOILO CITY: The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) has issued an appeal to the public to be mindful of their electricity consumption during the holiday season. This comes in light of the scheduled preventive maintenance of one of the generating plants of Panay Energy Development Corporation (PEDC), part of the Global Business Power Corporation (GBP), set to take place this month.

According to Philippines News Agency, lead specialist of the government relations and regional affairs division of the Public Relations Department of the NGCP, there might be a need for full dispatch of all other power plants and the use of the 180 megawatts capacity submarine cable between Negros and Panay, should PEDC proceed with its shutdown. Alcantara warned that the NGCP may have to resort to rotational brownouts or manual load droppings if the power supply becomes insufficient to meet the higher demand. “That is allocated per distribution utility or cooperatives, usually occurring during peak times based on the contracting capacity of each distribution utility,” he explained in a Wednesday interview.

NGCP’s Power 101 briefing in October revealed that Panay Island’s afternoon peak demand is 486 megawatts (MW), with an evening demand of 453 MW, while the generating capacity can reach up to 611.5 megawatts. The scheduled maintenance of PEDC 3, which generates 150 MW — over 25 percent of Panay’s daily average power demand — was a key topic of discussion.

GBP’s First Vice President for Panay Operations, Antonio Cabalhug, in a Tuesday media conference, indicated a planned shutdown of their PEDC 3 for annual preventive maintenance. “We were supposed to down the 150 MW unit, but due to an urgent request from NGCP, we are now targeting probably a week to postpone,” he stated.

Cabalhug mentioned that NGCP had expressed concerns about the critical position of the power grid if the shutdown had occurred as initially planned. “I cannot speak for NGCP, but they told us that we are in a very critical position if we shut down last night. I don’t know what will happen in the next days,” he said.

Alcantara noted that NGCP is exploring solutions with PEDC, such as conducting the preventive maintenance without completely shutting down the unit and merely reducing its output, to ensure a stable power supply during the holiday season.