DAVAO CITY (MindaNews/17 April) — Customers within the franchise area of Davao Light and Power Company (DLPC) will experience less brownouts from five hours, after the first 150-MW unit of Therma South Inc. (TSI) in Binugao, Toril started delivering power to the Mindanao grid on Sunday morning.
In an emailed stated, TSI president and chief-operating-officer (COO) Sebastian Lacson announced that the repair works on the coal-fired power plant have been completed before the 14-day schedule.
“The power plant is now exporting energy to the grid. It will take several hours for the Unit 1 to reach its full capacity,” he said.
The TSI 1 tripped last April 6 when a tree fell on the Davao-Toril 138 KiloVolt (KV) transmission line 1 of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP). The transmission line was immediately repaired that same day.
Based on the TSI’s investigation, the TSI 1 went offline after it suffered from a boiler tube leak, but TSI’s Unit 2 continues to function well.
At least 50 MW was contracted to DLPC from the TSI 1 and another 50 MW from the TSI 2.
The rest is delivered to more than 20 electric cooperatives and distribution utilities in Caraga, Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani, parts of Bukidnon, parts of Misamis and parts of Zamboanga Peninsula.
This was the first time that the TSI 1 went offline this year while the TSI 2 had three shutdowns so far this year. The first was an eight-day January 26 to February 2, 10-day preventive maintenance shutdown February 16 to 26, and March 3 which was addressed immediately and went online on same day.
With TSI 1 offline, the franchise area of DLPC – Davao City, Brgy. Bincungan in Tagum City, and Carmen, Sto. Tomas and Braulio Dujali towns in Davao del Norte – was left with 103 MW power deficit which increased the rotational brownouts to five hours.
According to DLPC estimates, 20 MW of supply lack translates to one hour of power outage. The average demand for DLPC’s franchise area averages 345 MW daily.
As of Sunday, the peak demand for Mindanao grid stood 1,336 but system capacity was only 1,309, placing the deficit at 27 MW.
(Antonio L. Colina IV / MindaNews)
