DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 24 Feb) – The Davao Light and Power Company (DLPC) will try to insulate hospitals and the Davao City Water District (DCWD) pumping stations from the rotating brownout schedule.
“We don’t want to give customers an added burden by cutting off their water supply by having brownouts at the DCWD stations,” DLPC spokesperson Rossano Luga said.
Speaking at Monday’s Kapehan sa SM, Luga said the two-hour rotational brownouts will likely occur within the week until March 2 when both units of the Steag power generators will be undergoing its scheduled maintenance.
The Steag coal-fired power plants in Misamis Oriental scheduled the maintenance from Feb. 19 to March 16.
Luga added that the upcoming Araw ng Dabaw event on March 16 will not be affected by the rotating brownouts as there would be an available 100 MW power supply during the festivities.
“We can operate at 100MW,” Luga said.
The power distribution utility said there would be no huge increase in the electric bills of customers during the maintenance period, except for a 10-centavo change in the per-kilowatt hour rates.
“So if a residential building has a usage of 200 kilowatt hours, their electric bills would only increase P20,” Luga said.
As of 11 a.m. Monday, the DLPC power demand was at 288 MW, according to DLPC assistant vice president for engineering Mark Valencia.
Meanwhile, Luga said that the upcoming commercial operations of the first unit 150 MW of Therma South Inc.’s coal-fired power plant in Toril could supply the projected demand for the year.
“We are not looking at 2015 as a time for a power supply problem,” Luga said. “But 2016 is another story.”
The utility officials asked customers to reach its hotline at (082) 229 DLPC or Facebook page for more information on brownout schedules.