WHAT SABOTAGE? Concepcion plant outage unplanned – PCPC

By: Francis Allan L. Angelo

Independent power producer Palm Concepcion Power Plant (PCPC) slammed claims of Panay Electric Company (PECO) that it was part of an alleged sabotage plot to besmirch the latter amid the dispute over power distributorship in Iloilo City.

In a statement, PCPC said the 2 x 135-megawatt (MW) coal-fired power plant in Concepcion, Iloilo was hit by “an unplanned outage last week due to an external grid event” last week.

“The drop in grid voltage caused by the trip of power plants in Iloilo City resulted in an automatic trip of our plant.  This is a protective system meant to prevent major damage to our facility,” said PCPC Operations and Maintenance (O&M) head, Engineer Albin Kintanar.

Kintanar added that their team tried to put the plant back online but the unstable grid voltage caused delays in starting the plant’s auxiliaries, ultimately affecting the start-up of the power plant unit.

This tripping also caused critical issues in the boiler and turbine of the Concepcion plant.

PCPC’s O&M team estimated to complete the works in 5 days but they were able to get the plant back online in 3 and half days.

PCPC said PECO’s outrageous claims of sabotage defies sound business management in the power industry as power plants stand to lose not only income but the trust of consumers if they stop operating for days on end.

“Nobody wants this untoward incident to happen, since the negative impact caused by the power outage affected not only our power consumers but also us in PCPC, and we want to assure all our customers that we will continue to work tirelessly to deliver our commitment of a stable power supply,” Engr. Kintanar said.

PCPC disconnected from the Visayas grid on Oct 29, 2019 at 5:27 p.m. and was synchronized with the grid on Nov 2 at 11 a.m.

Earlier, PECO said PCPC’s delayed start up is also a reason for the second blackout on Oct 30 that lasted for 12 hours.

The power distributor dragged rival firm MORE Electric and Power Corporation (MEPC) into the fray by pointing out that the latter’s president and chief executive officer Roel Castro was a former president of PCPC.

In response, Castro said he will not dignify PECO’s “delusional claims of sabotage” but he clarified that he is no longer part of PCPC, which is a joint venture of Palm Thermal Consolidated Holdings Corp. and Jin Navitas Resource, Inc.

Palm Thermal is a subsidiary of A Brown Company, Inc. (ABCI), a listed company primarily engaged in real estate, agribusiness and has ventured into the utilities and energy industry.