P400m needed to fix two Agus plants

By NITZ ARANCON
Correspondent
with NORA SORIÑO
GSD-Iligan bureau chief

THE government needs some P400 million in order to fix the generation units of two Agus hydroelectric plants that bogged down at the time when the independent power producer Steag State Power Inc. slowed down on its generating capacity due to scheduled maintenance works.

Engr. Dennis Taal, chief control officer of the the National Grid Corp.’s Iligan-Cagayan de Oro Control Center, said this even as he revealed that the Mindanao grid lacked 120 mw as of presstime. He blamed this on the problems with Unit 2 of the Agus 6 power plant and Unit 1 of the Agus 7 power plant in Lanao del Norte.

“Kanang power generators sa Agus 6 ug Agus 7 dili gyud na makabalik pag-andar kon dili kana pundohan sa gobyerno,” said Taal.

The power situation in Mindanao is not expected to improve in the coming days. At presstime, Taal said the power demand is 1,368 megawatts against the generation capacity of 1,249 mw.

Because of the situation, Taal said, the NGCP raised the alert level to “red,” and all power distributors in Mindanao were cautioned “aron dili ma-collapse ang system sa NGCP.”

He said the red alert simply means that power distributors should strictly implement rotational blackouts. “We really have no choice but issue the red alert because if we don’t, there will be an overload in the power consumption, and the entire system would collapse. If that happens, the whole of Mindanao would have no power,” Taal explained.

The NGCP is monitoring the power distribution and consumption 24 hours a day so as to prevent a system collapse, he said. Meanwhile in Iligan city, the local power distributor scheduled a blackout from 12 noon to 2 pm today to facilitate the resetting of metering points l and 2 protection system at the Agus 6 switchyard. This requires the shutdown of Agus 6-Mapalad 69-kv line, according to NGCP spokesperson Elizabeth Ladaga.

Iligan, to note, is not experiencing scheduled power outages.