DOE official: Grid system in Panay Island stable

UPDATES. Department of Energy Assistant Secretary Mario Marasigan (left) and Department of the Interior and Local Government Undersecretary for Barangay Affairs Chito Valmocina are resource persons at the Saturday Media Forum at Dapo Restaurant in Quezon City on Jan. 20, 2024. Marasigan assured that the grid system in Panay Island and neighboring provinces is stable and DOE is constantly monitoring the power supply in the island; while Valmocina shared the “Project Kalinisan” cleanliness initiative and the campaign for the over 42,000 villages in the country to produce their own food, such as fruits and vegetables, through planting. (PNA photo by Robert Oswald P. Alfiler)

MANILA – An official of the Department of Energy (DOE) on Saturday assured that the grid system in Panay Island and its neighboring provinces is stable.

DOE Assistant Secretary Mario Marasigan said the department is constantly monitoring the power supply on the island after the Jan. 2 blackout.

“Ang situation po ngayon, kagaya ng nabanggit ko kanina, stable po ang grid system natin. May ample supply tayo, walang kakulangan at every 30 minutes po mino-monitor namin iyong sitwasyon (The situation now, as I mentioned earlier, is that our grid system is stable. We have ample supply, there is no shortage and we monitor the situation every 30 minutes),” Marasigan said during a weekly forum in Quezon City.

“At mayroon pang mga oras na nag-i-export pa ang Panay papunta ng Negros, (“And there are times when Panay is still exporting to Negros).”

He also clarified that no rotational brownout has been experienced on the island, other than the blackout on Jan 2.

“Wala pa pong nangyayaring rotational brownout, except po noong insidente mismo, iyong oras nang pagkapatay noong planta. So ngayon, para maiiwasan po natin na huwag magkaroon pang sitwasyon ng Jan. 2, kung mayroon pang isa o dalawang planta na magkakaroon pa ng problema, saka po sila mag-i-issue noong talagang advisory na magkakaroon ng manual load dropping (No rotational brownout has happened yet, except during the incident itself when the plant was down. To avoid a recurrence of the Jan.

2 situation, if one or two plants experience problems, they will issue the actual advisory that there will be manual load dropping),” Marasigan said, adding that only one plant experienced an outage.

He expressed hope that the line enhancement program of the National Grid Corp.

of the Philippines (NGCP), particularly the Cebu-Negros-Panay (CNP) Stage 3 Project, would be completed soon, which, he added, would prevent outages.

The project, he explained, would increase the capacity to transfer power supply to Negros and Panay.

“Isa po sa nakita nating solusyon para maiiwasan ay dapat pong makumpleto iyong enhancement ng Negros-Panay, iyon po ‘yung tinatawag nating stage 3 project ng CNP (Cebu-Negros-Panay), part po iyon kung saan po mag-i-increase iyong capacity ng transfer ng Negros at Panay. Sa ngayon ho nabanggit ko, 180 megawatts, pwede pong umakyat ng 400 megawatts. So, kung magkaroon man – sabihin po natin, mabawasan man ng malaki ang generation sa Panay, iyon pong linya ang magbibigay ng kuryente (One of the solutions we found to avoid it is that the enhancement of Negros-Panay should be completed. That’s what we call the stage 3 project of CNP [Cebu-Negros-Panay]. That’s the part where we will increase the transfer capacity of Negros and Panay. Right now, as I mentioned, 180 megawatts can go up to 400 megawatts. So, even if the generation in Panay is significantly reduced, that line will provide electricity),” Marasigan said.

The NGCP has committed to finish the project by the end of March, he added.