Red alert for Minda power status

Parts of Mindanao are feared to experience anew one to four hours of daily power interruption due to the curtailment implemented by the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP).
Santiago Tudio, South Cotabato Electric Cooperative I (Socoteco I) general manager, said the Mindanao grid is now in a red alert status, meaning a severe deficiency in power supply.
“We have [again] a lack of power supply for the island,” he said, citing a grid advisory sent to cooperatives.
On Tuesday, a one-hour power outage hit Cagayan de Oro City this city abruptly, and yesterday morning, a 15 minute power interruption also occurred there, the seat of government of Region 12.
Tudio told MindaNews that consumers besieged them with complaints because of the brownout, lamenting they were not advised beforehand.
“What we’re asking is for the NGCP to give as a lead time so we can inform our consumers if there’s a curtailment,” he noted.
Socoteco I, which serves nine localities in South Cotabato and Lutayan in Sultan Kudarat, has a projected daily peak demand of 30 to 31 MW.
If the shortfall in the Mindanao grid is 260 MW, Socoteco I gets 24 WM from the grid, Tudio explained, adding they have bought 4 MW from Therma Marine, Inc. to help address the gap.
For a 24-hour outage, he lamented the cooperative is losing P333,000 or nearly P14,000 per hour.
At the NGCP website, it said the Mindanao grid has a shortfall of 210 MW, given the available capacity of 1059 MW and a peak demand of 1269 MW. [Bong S. Sarmiento / MindaNews]

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