POWER FOR ILOILO CITY

Coal plant still on load test but now mitigating outages

By Tara Yap

LONG power outages may now be mitigated as the region’s first-coal fired power plant is currently generating 50% of its capacity after successfully synchronizing its system to the grid and Panay Electric Company, Iloilo City’s lone power distributor.

Panay Energy Development Corporation (PEDC), which operates the 164-MW coal plant composed of two units, disclosed yesterday that its first unit was already generating 42-megawatts.

Engr. Henry Alcalde, PEDC vice president for operations, said this will give PECO additional power supply for its consumers without having to resort to rotational blackouts.

The city has been reeling from three to six hours of rotating brownouts due to capacity deficiency over the past three months.

PECO’s Engr. Randy Pastolero said the latest development will ease the power problem.

“There has been no blackout since 3pm of Wednesday (when the plant started going on-stream),” Pastolero said.

Pastolero emphasized that as long as PEDC supplies enough power, PECO will continuously distribute it to city consumers without interruptions.

Meanwhile, Alcalde clarified that the coal plant is still on testing and commissioning stage.

“Our monitoring stage continues and we may be disconnected from the PECO grid at times,” Alcalde disclosed.

He explained that the 42-megawatts was only a trail delivery, assuring that it is only when the plant is fully operational next month or in January, next year that PEDC can give steady and adequate power supply to PECO.

Load Rejection test

The purpose of the load rejection test is to evaluate the plant’s compatibility in transmitting to the grid while fixing technical errors that may pop up.

Alcalde explained that during the initial 25% load rejection test, diesel fuel was used and then it was switched to coal fuel during the 50% load rejection test yesterday morning.

Alcalde expects the test will reach the 100% mark early next week.

The test also checks the compatibility of the coal plant to connect with the Visayas power grid including Cebu and Negros.