ILOILO CITY – A major power blackout crippled Panay Island starting Tuesday, January 2.
Majority of Panay Island still had no power as of posting time.
Affected areas were Aklan, Antique, Capiz, and Iloilo as well as this city, the regional capital of Western Visayas. Also hit by the outage was the island-province of Guimaras.
Consumers initially blamed the Aklan Electric Cooperative Inc. (AKELCO), Antique Electric Cooperative Inc. (ANTECO), Capiz Electric Cooperative Inc. (CAPELCO), Guimaras Electric Cooperative Inc. (GUIMELCO), the three Iloilo Electric Cooperatives Inc. (ILECOs), and MORE Electric and Power Corp. (MORE Power) here for the incident.
But the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) reported multiple shut down of power plants in Panay Island.
“The unscheduled maintenance shutdowns of the largest power plants on Panay Island was the primary cause of the power interruption,” said NGCP in a statement on Wednesday, January 3.
A timeline provided by the NGCP said that Unit 1 of the coal-fired power plant of Panay Energy Development Corp (PEDC) here shut down at past noon on January 2, followed by Units 2 and 3. These three power plants generate more than 300 megawatt (MWs) of power.
The 135-MW coal-fired power plant of Palm Concepcion Power Corp. (PCPC) in Concepcion, Iloilo followed suit.
The NGCP said these were the reason the Panay grid was isolated.
Based on their calculation, the NGCP said the Panay grid needs more than 300 MWs to stabilize and have enough supply.
The Department of Energy (DOE) said the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) is investigating the incident.
“We assure the public that power restoration is of priority,” said DOE.
This blackout came several months after a similar incident hit Panay last April.