Luzon power plants back to normal ops after ‘Karding’ onslaught

As of 7 a.m., four power plants in Benguet that experienced outages were back to normal operation. (File Photo: Alexandru Boicu/Unsplash)

MANILA – Power plants in Luzon are back to normal operation Monday after Super Typhoon “Karding” hit over the weekend, raising the storm signal in Central Luzon to Signal No. 5.

According to the latest report of the Department of Energy (DOE), the last hydroelectric power plant (HEPP) that went online was the Pantabangan-Masiway HEPP in Nueva Ecija, which three units went down at 9:17 p.m. Sunday and became operational by 7:25 a.m. the following day.

As of 7 a.m., four power plants in Benguet that experienced outages were back to normal operation.

Six units of Hedcor Inc.’s power plant were also operating normally as early as 3:23 a.m. after these experienced outages due to a fault in the 69-kilovolt (kV) transient line caused by “Karding”.

With all the affected power plants going back to normal operations, the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) said there is sufficient power supply for the Luzon grid with an available capacity of 12,740 megawatts.

NGCP added that peak demand for Monday in Luzon is expected at 7,204 MW.

The Luzon grid still has surplus of power supply despite having six derated power plants, including GNPower Mariveles Energy Center 2 at 270 MW, Masinloc 1 at 250 MW, Masinloc 2 at 300 MW, Masinloc 3 at 240 MW, Pagbilao 1 at 320 MW, and San Gabriel at 211 MW.

However, as of 6 a.m., some transmission lines were still down, including four 230 kV lines in Central Luzon, seven 69 kV lines in North Luzon, and one 69 kV line in South Luzon.

“NGCP has mobilized its line crews and is currently conducting patrols to inspect and assess the impact of the typhoon to its operations and facilities. Simultaneous restoration activities are also being conducted on areas already accessible,” DOE said.

Meanwhile, the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) reported that there were 1,226,867 customers in its franchise areas that experienced power outages since Sunday.

“As of 6:00 a.m. today, September 26, affected customers are down to 51,773. Majority of them are in Bulacan, Rizal and Marikina. Our crews continue to work round the clock in order to restore power at the soonest possible time,” Meralco said in a separate statement.