Transmission problems affect Central Luzon and Mindanao

By Manila Standard Business – April 09, 2019 at 08:55 pm
from manilastandard.net

Customers of South Cotabato I Electric Cooperative Inc. experienced rotational brownouts for several days in Marcy because of “severely low voltage issue”, according to customer advisories from Socoteco I.

The utility said in a letter submitted to system operator National Grid Corporation of the Philippines the power curtailment happened on March 12 to 14 and again on March 21, with the brownouts lasting two to three hours. In the said letter, Socoteco I demanded an explanation from NGCP for the unexpected outages.

Socoteco I posted the NGCP response stating that the low voltage was brought about by depleting water level at the National Power Corp.’s Agus and Pulangi Hydroelectric Plants given the unfavorable weather condition.

Technical trouble of NGCP capacitor banks combined with tripping of Socoteco I’s embedded power plant Supreme Power Corp. also contributed to the low system voltage situation and triggered brownouts in Koronadal, Banga, Surallah areas.

Low voltage system due to the insufficient capacity of NGCP transmission facilities in certain portions of the grid also caused brownouts in several areas in Central Luzon.

Peninsula Electric Cooperative  customers in Bataan experienced power interruption due to low voltage at the transmission grid level on Jan. 24, 2019,

According to an advisory from PIA- Bataan, the power interruption affected Balanga City and towns of Hermosa, Orani, Samal, Abucay, Pilar, Orion, Bagac and Morong excluding Dinalupihan, Limay and Mariveles.

The said low voltage system problem had been plaguing Central Luzon since 2012, when Pampanga, Tarlac, Zambales, Bataan and Nueva Ecija experienced severe low voltage problems, particularly during peak periods.