Power Partially Restored in Leyte Grid

The power situation in Negros Oriental and other parts of the Visayas may improve in the coming days following the partial restoration of power in the Leyte grid that was devastated by the July 6 earthquake.

Michelle Visera, Corporate Communications Regional Officer of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP), on Monday said Dumaguete City and other parts of Negrs Oriental may not experience rotating brownouts today as there is no advisory of manual load dropping.

For weeks now, other parts of the Visayas had to bear at least one-hour rotating brownouts following power supply deficit in the region due to the damaged Leyte grid.

As this developed, the Negros Oriental Electric Cooperative II (NORECO II) has appealed once more to its member-consumers in Dumaguete and other parts of the province for understanding regarding the rotating brownouts in its coverage area as it is only dependent on NGCP on the schedules and how much power to load/shed at any given time.

In its advisory at 2:00 p.m. Monday, NGCP said it continues its Visayas restoration efforts for facilities affected by the July 6 earthquake.

As of July 17, three of six transformers (two 138/69kV and one 230/138kV transformers) are now energized with Transformer 4 online at 8:49 a.m., while the remaining three 230/138kV transformers are still under observation.

In light of information from test results of Ormoc transformer 6 and additional need for testing and corrective repair, technical experts do not recommend energization on July 19. The new target is set to July 23, still subject to satisfactory test results, the NGCP advisory added.

The islands of Leyte, Samar, Bohol, and Biliran will still continue to experience rotating power interruptions, particularly during peak hours, due to Ormoc Substation transformer limitations.

NGCP’s Ormoc-Tongonan 138kV line has been ready since July 8 to transmit as much as 112MW from Greencore. Greencore committed to supplying 40MW out of its 70MW pre-earthquake capacity by July 19.

The power situation in Cebu, Negros, and Panay will also improve after scheduled maintenance and the increasing generation output of Energy Development Corporation (EDC) geothermal plants.

All other parallel strategies, particularly the hauling of transformers from Cebu and reconfiguration of 230kV to 138kV lines, are ongoing and ready for implementation, respectively. (Judy Flores Partlow/PNA)