Davao Light announces brownouts

Power consumers in all of Davao Light and Power Company’s franchise are now experiencing 30-minute rotational brownouts up to end of February, according to  corporate communications officer Ross Luga.
This, after the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) imposed on Monday, February 8, a 60 megawatt load curtailment on Davao Light. NGCP has requested that Davao Light curtail a maximum of 68 megawatt.
According to Luga the load curtailment is requested by NGCP due to reduced capabilities of the Agus and Pulangi 4 hydro electric plants as a result of receding water elevation in Lake Lanao and the low water inflow in Pulangi. 
The reduced water elevation of the lakes has reportedly been brought about by the onset of the El Nino phenomenon in Mindanao.
Luga said that in some areas outside Davao, however, rotating brownouts had been experienced since November 2009 due to generation shortage and increase in the demand for electricity.
Davao Light customers though were not immediately affected because the utility has been running its Bajada Power Plant (BPP) since then. Also, Luga said, the areas to be affected by the rotating brownouts in Davao cannot be immediately determined, as well as the specific time that it will happen.
Engr. Rodger Velasco, vice president for engineering, said he received an urgent message from NGCP advising that the Mindanao Grid has been placed on Red Alert as the contingency reserve has gone down to zero level.
Velasco added that “we in Davao City are starting to feel the generation shortage already. Our Bajada power plant (BPP) can only carry up to 53MW for short duration and is capable only of up to 40MW of continuous load. The 60 MW curtailment imposed on Davao Light by NGCP last Monday exceeds our BPP capability. Hence we have to drop loads and rotate brownouts for 30 minutes within our franchise area, Velasco said.
He said that we expect the same situation until end of February unless generating plants that are on maintenance or on forced outage due to breakdown will be up and running soon.
Davao Light apologizes for the inconvenience of these service interruptions but it will exert all efforts to restore electric service as scheduled or earlier.  However, there may be instances where restoration may extend beyond the schedule due to unavoidable circumstances.