Mindanao power consumers might suffer a ‘black’ New Year

KIDAPAWAN CITY -Power consumers in North Cotabato and other parts of Mindanao have again experienced a daily load curtailment following the attack of two transmission towers of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) in Lanao del Sur and in North Cotabato, three days ago.Engineer Godofredo Homez, general manager of the Cotabato Electric Cooperative (Cotelco), said he received an advisory from NGCP informing them that the grid is again suffering from load deficiency of about 75 megawatts.The two hydroelectric power plants, Agus 1 and Agus 2, both located in Lanao Del Sur, are still isolated as of December 27 due to outage of Agus-Kibawe lines 1 and 2.Homez said they were told to strictly observe their adjusted allocation.He expected some 2 to 3MW of load curtailment from their power allocation this December of 9 to 11MW from the National Power Corporation (Napocor), which manages the hydroelectric power plants in Agus, Lanao Del Sur and in Kibawe, Bukidnon.If supply is insufficient as a result of the outage, Cotelco, according to Homez, is advised to avail of their bilateral power supply (BPS), and embedded generators. And if we exceed our total allocation, we would be subjected to manual local drop,” he explained. As to how long the load curtailment would last, they have yet to get another advisories from the NGCP. But Cotelco is hoping the celebration of New Year’s Eve won’t be affected by the load curtailment. The NGCP Mindanao reported that their tower 25, located at Barangay Gandamatu in Ramain, Lanao Del Sur, along NGCP’s Agus-Kibawe 138KV line, was toppled by unknown lawless elements, around 1045 p.m., on Christmas eve. About 15 minutes later, their tower 95 located in the vicinity of Barangay Aroman in Carmen, North Cotabato, along NGCP’s Kibawe-Kabacan 138KV lines 1 and 2, was also bombed.The tower was damaged but did not topple, the reports added. Milfrance Capulong, corporate communications officer of NGCP Mindanao, said that Towers 25 and 95 were the 14thand 15thtowers attacked this year.