ILOILO CITY – Following the ongoing massive blackout that hit Panay Island, the Department of Energy (DOE) reiterated on Wednesday the reminder to the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) to adhere to its responsibilities as system operator (SO).
“NGCP is in a position to anticipate system disturbance such as what happened, which unfortunately resulted in the isolation of Panay from the rest of the Visayas grid due to the simultaneous tripping of power plants that caused multiple power interruption affecting other power plants and distribution utilities (DUs),” said DOE Undersecretary Rowena Cristina Guevara in a Jan. 3 statement.
The massive power blackout started at past noon on Jan. 2 when Unit 1 of the Panay Energy Development Corp. (PEDC) coal-fired power plant here tripped.
It then cascaded to PEDC’s two other units while the coal-fired power plant of Palm Concepcion Power Corp. (PCPC) in Concepcion town, Iloilo province also had the same situation.
Affected mainly by the blackout were Aklan, Antique, Capiz, Guimaras, and Iloilo provinces as well as the regional capital of Iloilo City.
As an SO monitoring the grid 24/7, the DOE said that NGCP is in a “position to immediately coordinate with the power plants to ensure that their respective unit protection and control settings will not cause grid instability that could lead to blackouts.”
Guevara said that NGCP should have learned its lesson when a system disturbance happened last April that affected both Panay and Negros Islands.
She added that NGCP could have resolved the issues differently already.
The DOE also urged the NGCP “to be at the forefront in informing the public, especially the people of Western Visayas, on the power situation, including hourly updates and restoration timeline.”