Engineers of MORE Power monitor the power supply situation in Iloilo City at their new command center on Tuesday, 09 July 2024. MindaNews photo by FROILAN GALLARDO
ILOILO CITY (MindaNews / 09 July) – At the new control center of the MORE Electric and Power Corporation (MORE Power) here, President and CEO Roel Castro watched closely the large TV monitor, observing for surges in power consumption that could collapse their system and put the entire city into blackness.
But Castro remained calm, saying he’s not worried.
It is because a daily volume of 400 megawatts (MW) of electricity flows into the Visayas grid from Mindanao’s power generation facilities, which produce at least 2,900 MW a day.
“The electricity from Mindanao is a great help to us and (the other) Visayas electricity distributors, especially last April when humidity went up to 47 degrees,” Castro told reporters who visited their command center on Tuesday during a trip sponsored by the United States Embassy in Manila.
Castro said the additional electricity supply from Mindanao is being used by Visayas power distributors to fill up the electricity demand as consumers turned to air conditioners and electric fans to cool down.
He said before that, power distributors in Visayas would suffer blackouts when the demand for electricity goes up, especially during the hot summer months.
The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) energized the P52-billion Mindanao-Visayas Interconnection submarine cable in 2023. The 184-kilometer cable connected the power grids of Mindanao and Visayas with a transfer capacity of 450 MW to 900 MW.
Energy Undersecretary Rowena Cristina Guevara said Mindanao power generators produced a surplus supply of electricity that it would not endanger its grid even if it supplies power to the Visayas grid.
The NGCP, the country’s sole power grid operator, reported on Monday that Mindanao produced 2,926 MW of electricity against a peak demand of 2,225 megawatts, or a surplus of 701 MW.
Two decades ago, Mindanao experienced shortages in electricity as its main power generation facility, the Agus hydropower plants, reduced its output because of lack of water supply. Today, most of the electricity in Mindanao is produced by coal and oil-driven power plants. (Froilan Gallardo / MindaNews)
