NGCP urges consumers to move energy-consuming activities to daytime

Local

THE National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) urged consumers to move electricity intensive household activities to daytime hours to help reduce pressure on the Visayas power grid.

Engr. Amado Otarra III made the recommendation during his appearance before the Mandaue City Council, where he discussed the region's power supply situation.

Solar power accounts for nearly 35 percent of the Visayas' total electricity supply during daylight hours, Otarra said, but its generation drops to zero at night while electricity demand remains relatively high.

“If pwede na siya natong ibalhin og oras nga naay solar, hayag or adlawan, makatabang ta og paubos sa demand sa mga oras nga kuwang ta og supply,” Otarra said.

He cited activities such as ironing clothes and vacuuming that households could move to daylight hours when solar generation is available.

Otarra said shifting electricity intensive activities could help reduce demand during evening periods when the grid has less available supply.

The practice could also help consumers manage electricity costs by reducing demand during periods when additional electricity may need to be sourced from the Wholesale Electricity Spot Market (WESM), where prices can increase when supply is tight.

Otarra said the Visayas power supply situation could improve from mid-November through December as several generating units are expected to return from preventive maintenance.

These include Therma Visayas Inc. (TVI) Unit 1, with a capacity of 169 megawatts; Panay Energy Development Corp. (PEDC) Unit 3 in Panay, with 150 megawatts; and KEPCO SPC Power Corp. (KSPC), with 103 megawatts.

The return of the three units would restore more than 400 megawatts of generating capacity if they return as expected.

However, Otarra said several other power plants remain under preventive maintenance.

Some units that had already resumed operations were also forced to shut down again after technical problems were detected.

Otarra said continuing to operate a generating unit despite an identified problem could result in a more serious failure and potentially affect the stability of the power grid.

The sudden loss of a generating unit could create a power shortage or remove more than 100 megawatts from available supply, depending on the capacity of the unit taken offline.

Despite the expected return of several generating units, Otarra said NGCP cannot guarantee that rotational brownouts will completely stop.

The generating plants are privately owned, and their operations are beyond NGCP's control, he said.

The expected return of the generating units could improve supply conditions, but consumers may still experience power supply problems and rotational brownouts while some plants remain unavailable.(MyTVCebu)