Visayas power supply stable despite maintenance shutoff

CEBU, Philippines — KEPCO-SPC in Naga City, Cebu has shut down one of its power units that carry a 100-megawatt power supply in order to undergo preventive maintenance.

The shutdown started last Saturday and will last until April 27.

In a statement, KEPCO-SPC said that its Unit No. 2 of its 2 x 100MW coal fired power plant has achieved a milestone for over six years of operation since it started its commercial operation in 2011.

It said that Unit No. 2 has been operated without any trouble and shutdown for eight months and 14 days from July 2017 up to its scheduled preventive maintenance scheduled last April 7, even though there were many grid disturbances, including the tropical storm in December 2017 in Northern Cebu and earthquake last year in Leyte.

In addition to this milestone, the company has also accomplished perfect operation for almost 350 days since the last forced outage, including preventive maintenance period.

"This indicates that KSPC is on track in its commitment to ensure power stability in the Visayas Grid. This is made possible through the devoted efforts of the employees and the high-tech operational skills and maintenance," the statement reads.

It added that the maintenance works are expected to be completed on April 27 or earlier, hoping to ensure power reliability in the Visayas Grid, especially this summer season.

Betty Martinez, spokesperson of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP), said the shutdown of KEPCO-SPC's 100mw unit will not affect the power supply in the Visayas grid.

"NGCP schedules power plant shutdowns in such a way the system will still be stable,” said Martinez.

Meanwhile, the Visayan Electric Company, Inc. (VECO) has inaugurated the other day its upgraded Banilad Substation from 1x 33 MVA to 2x33 MVA.

VECO chief operating officer Anton Mari Perdices said the continued growth in IT Park, Banilad and A.S. Fortuna areas made it imperative for VECO to also improve the power facilities that serve the area.

Perdices, however, assured that this P90-million upgrading project will not result to the increase in power rates among VECO's 425,903 customers.

The newly-upgraded substation, totaling to 19 substations within VECO's franchise area, is their strong commitment in continuously improving its distribution network to address the power needs of its customers.

The upgraded substation is located at the VECO Engineering Office in Banilad, Cebu City, which is an additional of its existing 33 MVA capacity to the eastern cluster of the VECO franchise, doubling the capacity of the facility from 1 x 33 MVA to 2 x 33 MVA power transformers, or a total of 66 MVA.

In a separate statement, VECO said that a substation is a set of equipment that reduces the high voltage of electrical power transmission to that which is suitable for supply to consumers.

“It is VECO’s mission to provide reliable and ample power supply to its customers. We are committed to advancing business and communities where we are located, which is why we are constantly improving our facilities to better serve our customers," said Perdices.

The statement added that the upgrade also makes it easier for VECO to transfer loads quickly from one substation to another within the eastern cluster during emergency situations.

For a robust and a reliable network, VECO has been keeping up with its N-1 reliability standard.

This means that a single loss of power transformer within each region would still enable VECO to provide electricity to its customers without curtailment.

This developed as VECO assures of an ample power supply during the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections this coming May 14, 2018.

Perdices said that they have enough emergency personnel on motorcycle to immediately answer emergency needs during the elections. — GAN (FREEMAN)