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The Visayan Electric Co. (Veco) continued to implement rotation brownouts yesterday after the power distribution firm experienced another shortage of power supply from 50 megawatts to 70 MW due to the non-operation of the land-based diesel thermal plant in Naga City in southern Cebu.
Ethel Natera, Veco spokespersona, said commercial establishments like SM City and Waterfront Cebu City Hotel and Casino in Lahug deloaded about 12.7 MW but it was not enough to address the shortage.
Veco needed about 330 MW during peak hours between 5 p.m. and 6 p.m.
The National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) informed Veco about the power shortage of 50 MW in the morning and 70 MW in the evening due to the inavailability of the diesel power plant in Naga City.
Natera said thermal power plants 1 and 5 of the Cebu Diesel Power Plant 1 produced about 6 MW each.
The entire power plant was capable of producing a total of 40 MW daily.
According to the Veco website, power interruptions were felt from 9:56 a.m to 5:30 p.m. due to interruptions in 11 feeders located in the cities of Mandaue, Cebu, Talisay, Naga and the municipality of Minglanilla.
Natera said interruptible load costumers and the Cebu Private Power Corp. managed to contribute 12.7 MW to the system.
Of the 12.7 MW, 3 MW to 3.5 MW was deloaded by SM City mall between 2 and 3 p.m. Another 1.2 MW was deloaded by Waterfront Lahug between 2 and 4 p.m.
Cebu needs about 615 MW daily and a 23-percent power reserve of about 144 MW.
But it only gets 519 MW from the local producers and the Visayas grid, thus incurring a deficit of about 96 MW.
Additional power would be available next year yet with the completion of the coal-fired power plant that would be built by Cebu Energy Development Corp. (CEDC) in Toledo City, which can produce 246 MW.
In the meantime, the rotating power interruptions have affected traffic operations in Mandaue City.
The Traffic Enforcement Agency of Mandaue is asking Veco to inform TEAM before any scheduled power interruption so they can deploy their personnel to traffic prone areas prior the brownout will occur.
Mandaue's traffic agency made the request after TEAM was caught flatfooted during Tuesday night's brownout that caused a shutdown of traffic lights in key areas of the city, triggering a massive traffic jam.
?It would be better if we would know ahead of some so our men would be in place before the traffic lights go off due to the power interruption,? said Dino Bargamento of the TEAM operations center.
Heavy traffic was experienced along at junction along the North Road and UN Avenue, the Highway Seno crossing and the junction along AC Cortes Avenue from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. because the traffic lights were not working due to the brownout.
