By Myrna M. Velasco
Local firm Power One Corporation has delivered 6.0 megawatts (MW) of replacement power for the requirements of Bansud town in Southern Oriental Mindoro, with the intent to save the area from brownout predicaments.
The initial delivery had been for 4.0MW generating set; then that was buoyed by additional 2.0MW on the request of the host-provincial government and the area’s power utility Oriental Mindoro Electric Cooperative (ORMECO).
The company indicated that replacement power is critically needed in that off-grid domain because one of its main sources of electricity is hydro, which could turn cyclically intermittent during summer time.
Power One explained that electricity service interruptions ensue “due to the drop in mini-hydro generation resulting from low water level this summer in four mini-hydro locations in the northern part of the province.”
The independent power producer said the generation output of the emergency facility preliminarily leveled at 5.0MW; then ramped up to full capacity of 6.0MW as of April 30.
Power One has a contract with the front-lining power utility ORMECO to deliver 9.0MW of net capacity until year 2032, but one of its main engines which has rated of capacity of 4.0MW had been snagged with “external faults from the Mindoro grid.”
The damaged facility should have been back on stream by April, but the key import component of the equipment did not arrive due to the COVID lockdowns, hence, there was a need to replace that particular volume of lost power generation.
The company said it is also helping ORMECO address power interruptions in the southern town of Pinamalayan – and that required facility deployment and a separate contract arrangement for 4.0MW of capacity within the span of six months only. The commissioning date of the facility is May 14 this year.
“ORMECO had been trying to install power-generating capacities in the southern part of the province to prevent the area from being isolated whenever there are problems transmitting power from the north where most of its contracted power plants are located including all the mini-hydro and wind plants,” Power One said.
For capacity shoring up in the other town of Calapan, ORMECO likewise contracted additional 10MW capacity of “emergency power” from another provider COSMO, which was also intended to last for six months. One half of that contracted capacity was targeted to be on line at end-April.