At least a four-hour rotating blackouts continue to plague this trading capital of Northern Mindanao as traders grimace its ill effect on the local economy. The Steag Coal-fired power plant in Villanueva town, Misamis Oriental, has started its annual maintenance work in one of its 220 Megawatt power turbines that contributed to the rotating power outages. The rotating blackouts here started early July after power distributors in Misa-mis Oriental and Cagayan De Oro City, conducted maintenance works on their power lines at almost the same time. When everyone thought that the power maintenance by the local power distributors were over, the shutting down of one of the Steag Coal-fired power plant exacerbated the power crisis here. Steag coal-fired power plant, the first coal plant in Misamis Oriental, has two power turbines – each has a 100-megawatts capacity or a total of 220 megawatts. Steag fed most of its power to the National Power Corporation (Napo-cor) that subsequently distributes the power to various power utility distributors in Mindanao. In March this year, Steag had its first turbine maintained causing a month-long Mindanao-wide power outages. Under a rotating blackout, the local power distributors have divided the city of Cagayan De Oro and the province of Misamis Oriental into four or more districts. One or two districts experience a four-hour blackout while the other districts remain lighted until their scheduled four-hour blackout. (pna)