NGCP: Blackouts were ‘for protection’ of system

By Joseph B.A. Marzan

 

The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) said Friday that the region-wide blackout on Sept. 24, 2020 was an over-voltage protection to prevent further risks to the region’s power supply.

Power in most parts of the region, including most of Negros Island, went out at around 10 am Thursday.

Mechelle Visera, the NGCP’s Corporate Communications Officer told Aksyon Radyo Iloilo that they did detect a system disturbance at around 10 am in their grids but they are still finalizing their investigation.

She said that power plants in both Panay and Negros Islands activated their over-voltage protection circuits, which effectively shut down power to distribution utilities.

Over-voltage protection circuits are activated by power providers which shuts down the supply, or clamps down the output, to protect electronic components.

Power from plants go through the NGCP’s substations and transformers before they reach the distribution utilities, which then provide the electricity to consumers in either homes or businesses.

Iloilo City’s power is provided by MORE Power Corporation, while Iloilo province is being serviced by Iloilo Electric Cooperatives (ILECO) I, II, and III.

Visera added that they will provide a report to the Department of Energy (DOE) which contains their findings.

“[On Sept. 24] at [10 am] we detected a system disturbance, that’s why there was a widespread power interruption. As of now, they are still investigating, but we will report for the DOE on the root cause of the power interruption yesterday because it was not only in Panay, but also in Negros, there was also an overvoltage, that is why the [over-voltage protection circuits] of the different cooperatives in Negros were activated, and at the same time, the plants in Panay also did, that’s why they went out of the NGCP grid,” Visera said.

As to what had really happened, Visera said that the NGCP does not intend to point fingers once they finalized their investigation and have come up with a report.

This was due to conflicting posts by distribution utilities which point to either the NGCP or power plants in the region as the cause of the outage.

“The final report isn’t finished, we can’t say anything if there isn’t a final report yet. But this isn’t to point fingers on anyone, this is to see what can be improved in our system. The systems are too complicated sometimes and there becomes a domino effect. That is why even if the problem may be in Panay, even Negros will be affected, because we are connected through our submarine cables. Yesterday, the submarine cables did not have a problem,” she said.

She added that the NGCP is seeking to establish whether the error was on the side of transmission only or the whole system in itself.

“We’re looking at whether it is a transmission-related or supply-related issue. That’s what we’re trying to establish, so it wouldn’t happen again. NGCP has its own protection, power plants have their own, and our coops also have one. If there is a problem in the system, we will be able to detect it, like the circuit breakers in our own homes, that if there are faulty wires detected, the breaker will automatically open,” she added.

Visera said that despite the Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) and Modified ECQ imposed in Panay and Negros due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), the NGCP has continued with its maintenance activities and will continue to do so.

“I can only speak on the side of the NGCP, which has its own safety protocols. What the NGCP does is, that when the line trips, we do line patrolling, and we also do annual conduct of maintenance activities. Even if there was the MECQ or ECQ, the NGCP continued its maintenance activities all over Western Visayas. Even the Negros personnel cross to Panay to make sure our equipment is always available. If there are no problems detected, we just energize the lines. We also have spares that in case there is trouble, we can just replace them. Our engineers are on duty 24/7 and our linemen are also on standby in strategic areas in Panay,” she said.