ZAMBOANGA CITY (MindaNews/03 May)– Rotational brownouts in this city have stretched to eight hours daily in the past four days, from four to six hours before, due to the worsening power supply problem.
Omar Sahi, Zamboanga City Electric Cooperative (Zamcelco) president, said that Therma Marine, Inc. (TMI) was only supplying 13 megawatts (MW), out of the 18 MW contracted supply, after two of its power generation facilities bogged down.
They are still under repair and with no definite date for their completion, he said.
The TMI is one of the two Independent Power Producers (IPP) that supply power to Zamcelco. The other IPP is the Mapalad Power Corp. (Mapalad) that also supplies 18 MW.
Sahi said the rotational brownouts will be reduced to four to six hours daily, which the consumers had been experiencing in the past months, once the repair by TMI will be completed.
He said Zamcelco now has a power deficit of 25 MW from the previous 20 MW following the breakdown of the two TMI machines.
He said that Zamcelco, which has an 85 MW peak load demand, is only receiving at present 60 MW power supply.
These are as follows: 29 MW from the state-run Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM), 18 MW from Mapalad, and 13 MW from TMI.
Sahi said PSALM is only providing 29 MW of the contracted 54 MW to Zamcelco as some of its power plants are also out of order.
The rotational brownouts are being implemented in three to four frequencies daily ranging from two to three hours per frequency to Zamcelco’s 24 feeders serving 130,000 consumers. (MindaNews)
