ILOILO City – The Regional Development Council (RDC) of Western Visayas asked the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) to fast-track its system / grid improvements.
RDC’s Infrastructure and Development Committee (IDC) chaired by Mayor Jerry P. Treñas held a special meeting yesterday together with the NGCP, Department of Energy (DOE), and generation and distribution utilities in Panay Island.
All comments and suggestions during the meeting were incorporated in a resolution, including the point Treñas raised that NGCP should make sure there is no cascading effect to the whole Panay Island should there be a fault in the grid.
According to NGCP, a fault occurred along the Bacolod-Silay 69-kiloVolt (kV) line at 1:50 p.m. on April 27. It caused a blackout.
The line was maintained and operated in part by the Central Negros Electric Cooperative, Inc. (Ceneco) and NGCP.
Subsequently, Palm Concepcion Power Corporation (PCPC), with estimated generation load of 135 megawatts (MW), tripped 1.3 seconds after fault clearing. The resulting undervoltage and underfrequency were severe and unrecoverable, and were the direct causes of the tripping of other power plants connected to the system, and ultimately, the Panay sub-grid collapsed.
The subsequent trippings that occurred on April 28 and 29 were a direct result of the avoidable events of April 27.
“It was clearly shown the fault was in Ceneco and yet Iloilo City was affected. NGCP’s protection system should immediately address this. I would get the assurance of NGCP that there will be no more cascading fault that will lead to total blackout especially in Panay and portion of Negros,” the city mayor said.
Also included in the resolution is for NGCP to install three 100 MegaVolt-Ampere (MVA) substations and transmission lines by 2024 in Iloilo City, otherwise by 2025 the city will experience rotational outages.
“Because of the fast economic growth of the region especially the cities of Iloilo and Bacolod, the capacity of NGCP’s substation and transmission lines should also be upgraded specifically for Iloilo City,” Treñas stressed.
Meanwhile, for medium to long-term solutions, NGCP, with the assistance of DOE, was also asked to fast-track the Cebu-Negros-Panay 230kV Backbone Project, linking Negros and Cebu through a submarine cable by 2023 instead of 2040.
Had this project been completed on time, the line could have provided a more efficient delivery system to transport power to support the Panay sub-grid recovery by efficiently delivering the needed voltage support from other plants in the Visayas grid.
The NGCP project involves the construction of a 238-kilometer long circuit, 230 kV capacity transmission, which also includes the expansion of the Barotac Viejo substation, the E.B Magalona cable terminal station and the Bacolod substation
“If this is not completed soon, the problem that faced us last April 27 to 29 can still persist,” Treñas added.
“We need NGCP to act fast and commit to do all of these. Otherwise all our efforts to bring economic development and employment will go to waste simply because of the very poor and inadequate services of NGCP,” the city mayor said./PN
