ILOILO City – The National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) should improve its transmission system to prevent prolonged power interruptions in Western Visayas.
The Regional Development Council’s (RDC) Infrastructure and Development Committee (IDC) chaired by Mayor Jerry Treñas passed Resolution No. 02-2023 enjoining NGCP, through the intervention of the Department of Energy (DOE) and Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), to expedite the development and upgrading of the power transmission system for the entire Western Visayas.
Taking a strong stance against power interruptions in the region, it was Treñas who called for a special meeting on May 11 to address the region’s power concerns.
“We need NGCP to act fast and commit to do all of these. All our efforts to bring economic development could go to waste because of the very poor and inadequate services of NGCP,” Treñas said.
A prolonged blackout transpired from April 27 to 29, 2023. It resulted to huge economic losses for Region 6, which posted the highest economic growth rate among all regions in 2022 at 9.3 percent, exceeding the national average of 7.2 percent.
In the resolution, the IDC cited that the Panay Island grid lags behind Cebu, Leyte and Negros grids in terms of reliability due to having only one existing grid interconnection which is the 138-kiloVolt (kV) Panay-Negros Line.
“Widespread outages will continue to be a threat to Region 6 in the absence of an alternative grid interconnection to Luzon mainland grid through the Batangas-Mindoro-Panay Interconnection Project,” read part of the resolution which was approved on May 11 meeting.
The committee resolved to urge NGCP that the completion of the Batangas-Mindoro-Panay Interconnection Project should be pushed forward from 2040 to 2030 or earlier to sustain the growth of the region, especially the highly urbanized cities of Iloilo and Bacolod.
“Because of the fast economic growth of the region especially Iloilo City and Bacolod, the capacity of NGCP’s substation and transmission lines should also be upgraded specifically for Iloilo City,” Treñas, in a sideline interview during the meeting, stressed.
The resolution further stressed that the delays on the implementation of the power transmission system upgrading, including the 3×100 MegaVolt Ampere (MVA) substation in Iloilo City, will result to substation overloading, capacity deficit and more power interruptions in the region given the increasing energy demand.
It added that NGCP must improve its grid/transmission protection system and coordination with the distribution utilities and power plants to ensure there is no more cascading outage event and tripping of multiple power plants.
Based on the report of the NGCP, a fault occurred along the Bacolod-Silay 69-kV line at 1:50 p.m. on April 27. 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, NGCP noted.
“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,” Treñas said.
Moreover, NGCP was also told to improve its information, education and communication to ensure that the public receive timely notices of scheduled power interruption and given regular updates about the status of the transmission lines in case of unannounced power outages.
Meanwhile, NGCP president and chief executive officer Anthony Almeda was supposed to personally meet Treñas on Friday, May 12, to discuss the power concerns but unfortunately, he tested positive for COVID-19. Almeda assured to see the city mayor when he becomes well./PN
