ILOILO CITY — Tropical depression “Lanie” has passed through, but the entire Panay Island and Guimaras Island experienced a blackout Tuesday, October 5.
According to the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP), the unscheduled blackout that started past 5:30 a.m. is due to the tripping of several power plants in Negros Oriental and Iloilo.
“This resulted to a significant supply deficiency in Negros and Panay,” said Michelle Visera, NGCP Western Visayas regional corporate communications officer.
“To maintain the integrity of the transmission grid, protection systems were activated and manual load dropping was implemented. NGCP is waiting for the restoration schedule from the generating plants,” Visera added.
Affected are consumers in Aklan, Antique, Capiz, Iloilo, and Guimaras provinces.
Portions of Iloilo City, the regional capital, is also affected.
One of the power plants that tripped is the Panay Energy Development Corp. (PEDC), the subsidiary of Global Business Power Corp. (GBP) that operates the 314-megawatt (314 MW) coal-fired power plant in Iloilo City.