Coal-fired plant trips twice, more blackouts announced

By Cheneen R. Capon
After undergoing a ten-day preventive maintenance shutdown that ended on February 28, Unit 2 of Therma South, Inc. (TSI)’s coal-fired power plants tripped again yesterday — twice.
This prompted Davao Light and Power Company (DLPC) to announce yesterday that it will impose another round of three- to four-hour rotating power interruptions in its franchise area.
“In the Davao Light franchise, this will result in the implementation of the rotating power interruptions again, which projected duration is within 2 to 3 hours,” DLPC said in statement.
DLPC had reduced the blackouts from three hours to just 30 minutes in the last three days after TSI’s Unit 2 went back online last Sunday.
It had explained that blackouts would continue because of the effects of El Niño and the bombings of towers of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP), some of which have still to be repaired due to conflicts with private land owners.
Yesterday, however, DLPC said it had received an advisory from the NGCP that “one of the units of the Therma South Inc.(TSI) coal-fired power plant went offline.”
Wilfredo Rodolfo III, AboitizPower corporate branding and communication manager, told EDGE Davao yesterday that Unit 2 of TSI with a 150MW capacity tripped twice yesterday, once in the morning and again in the afternoon.
“We’re still figuring out the reason why it tripped,” Rodolfo said.
Unit 2 is the same unit that went offline for 10 days in February for preventive maintenance.
It is also the same unit that tripped on Easter Sunday (April 5) last year, plunging the entire Mindanao in a blackout.
Aside from TSI, DLPC also said the one unit of the 200MW diesel plant of the power barge operator Therma Marine, Inc. also underwent preventive maintenance shutdown.
AboitizPower, however, said the TMI unit went back online in the afternoon yesterday.
When asked why the one unit of the TMI tripped, Rodolfo said the company is still conducting a probe on the possible cause.
AboitizPower owns TSI, TMI, and DLPC.
The NGCP posted on its website that there was a deficiency in the power supply yesterday as the system peak reached 1,406MW but with only 1,231MW power supply from independent and state-owned generation utilities in the island.
The NGCP said there was a deficit of 175MW as of 1 p.m. yesterday.
Mindanao Power Monitoring Committee (MPMC) head Romeo Montenegro told reporters earlier that the Mindanao power supply is continuing to contract as the deliverables of the major hydroelectric power plants here decreases.
Montenegro, who is also the director of the public relations and investment promotions division of the Mindanao Development Authority, said the long drought season is affecting the water level in the reservoirs of the Agus- Pulangi Hydroelectric Power Complexes.
“The Agus-Pulangi is only delivering 20 percent of its more than 900 MW installed capacity due to low water elevation,” Montenegro added.
He said the power supplied by the power plant even drop to less than 200MW last week because of the El Niño phenomenon.
Montenegro said the derated capacity of the Agus and Pulangi is expected to dive further as the long drought season peaks in the summer period.
However, he said the entry of coal-fired power plants in Mindanao in the first quarter will ease the tight Mindanao power crisis.
He said the 100-MW 100-MW unit of the Sarangani Energy Corporation in Maasim, Sarangani Province will come online in the first quarter of the year while the San Miguel Power Corporation will start commercial operation of its two power plants, each having a capacity of 150 MW, in the second quarter.