2 to 3 hour brownout in Cotabato Light franchise

COTABATO CITY - TheCotabato Light and Power Company today saidpower supply situation within its franchise remains very tight. As of today, the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) advised a grid wide deficiency of 80MW due to the reduced capacity of Agus and Pulangi Hydropower plants, Arlene Hepiga, Cotabato Light communications officer, said Saturday.She the150 MW Therma South Inc. coal-fired power plant had to be shutdown. This situation has constrained us to implement one – three hours of rotating power interruptions affecting all feeders within franchise, she said. Although Cotabato Light standby diesel plant will continue to run to alleviate the current power situation and to mitigate the impact of the tight power situation, still unable to meet the demand for power with an estimate deficiency of about 5.77 MW,' she said.Cotabato Light franchise needs 25 MW daily but it is only receiving 14 to 16 MW a day.Cotabato Light has been posting rotational interruption schedule on a daily basis. Hepiga said the rotational brownout Saturday may be changed or canceled depending on NPC /PSALM and NGCP allocation, Power Plant capability and the behavior of load at a given period of time.She added rotational power interruptions will be automatically lifted once adequate supply of power from the generating plants becomes available.Cotabato Light deeply apologized to its customers for the inconvenience caused by these power interruptions which are beyond its control. The company assures that necessary announcements and updates to its customers relating to the power supply situation update will be made from time to time.