Home 
BROWNOUTS are expected to hit Cebu City and other areas in the province following reports that the Visayas grid will experience a 158 MW shortfall due to the emergency shutdown of the Leyte geothermal plant second unit at past 8 p.m yesterday.
National Grid Corp. corporate communications officer Belinda Sales Canlas said the Cebu Energy Development Corp's 82 MW capacity unit in Toledo City going also went offline again due to a boiler problem at 7:06 p.m. yesterday.
Aggravating the problem, Canlas said, is the absence of additional power from the Luzon grid due to its 332 MW shortage.
?The increase in power deficiency from last Saturday afternoon's 120 MW can be attributed to the significant rise in demand from 6,133 MW (March 13, 2010) to today's forecasted demand of 7,042 MW,? Canlas said in reference to the Luzon grid demand.
But she said peak demand for the Visayas grid didn't increase significantly based on the power updates from March 13 until yesterday.
The Visayas grid peak demand went up by only 47 MW from last Saturday's peak demand of 1,164 MW.
Elsewhere, about nine firms are expected to enter into an agreement with the Visayas Electric Co. (Veco) today to pledge their commitment for the load shedding program.
Among those expected to enter into the load shedding agreement are Cenapro, Wellmade Motors and Monde Nissin.
The agreement signing will be held at the Capitol social hall today.
Veco's load shedding program would allow private establishments capable of self-generation to deload from the grid in the event of a power shortage.
Veco officials also urged Cebuanos to participate in the Earth Hour campaign which encourages everyone to turn off their lights for at least an hour on March 27.
Last year's Earth Hour saved at least 48 MW of power. /Reporters Aileen Garcia-Yap and Doris C. Bongcac
