ILOILO City – A snake was the culprit behind the massive power loss in Panay Island and Guimaras on Feb. 20.
This was stated in the explanation letter of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) through its president and chief executive officer, Anthony L. Almeda, after almost a month that Iloilo City mayor Jerry P. Treñas demanded for an explanation.
The NGCP’s letter, dated March 10, 2023, was received by the City Mayor’ Office on March 16.
Almeda said their initial investigation showed a snake intrusion on the side of the Panay Diesel Power Plant 1 (PDPP 1) Transformer No. 1 was determined to be the cause of the interruption, which resulted in a fault at their 138kV line.
“The protection system of the plant was unable to isolate the fault which resulted in severe undervoltage and cascading tripping of power plants in Panay such as the Panay Energy Development Corporation units 1 and 2, Palm Concepcion Power Corporation unit 1, San Lorenzo Wind, Central Azucarera de Antonio Biomass, and Villasiga Hydro Power Plant,” Almeda explained.
NGCP monitored a system disturbance affecting Panay Island at 11:06 a.m. on Feb. 20.
At 11:24 a.m., Almeda further narrated that NGCP’s Bacolod-Barotac Viejo 138kV Shunt Reactor at the Bacolod Substation, which was designed to avert any potential damage due to overvoltage, activated, thus isolating the Panay sub-grid.
“NGCP’s protection systems activated, as intended, to prevent any further damage to the grid,” he explained.
The massive power interruption lasted for more than eight hours affecting businesses and schools in five Western Visayas provinces, including Iloilo City.
NGCP was able to restore power transmission services at 2:24 p.m. of the same day and awaited the synchronization of the affected power plants back to the grid.
It added that rotating power interruptions were forecasted due to the unavailability of generation plants but were not implemented due to supply from variable renewable energy and power exported through its submarine cable from Cebu.
The NGCP already requested PDPP to test its protection systems and to implement corrective actions in their equipment./PN
