Power plant maintenance under review as DOE seeks to avoid outages

Local

THE Department of Energy (DOE) is reviewing power plant maintenance schedules across the country to help prevent yellow and red alerts and maintain a stable electricity supply, particularly in the Visayas and Mindanao grids.

During an online press briefing on Monday, July 6, Energy Undersecretary Mario Marasigan said the department continues to coordinate with generation companies and the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) to ensure planned outages do not coincide with periods of tight power supply.

The review forms part of the annual Grid Operating and Maintenance Program, which outlines preventive maintenance schedules for power plants and transmission facilities.

According to Marasigan, the DOE evaluates these schedules and, when necessary, asks power generators to move their maintenance activities to lessen the impact on the grid.

Of the 14 power plants that sought confirmation for preventive maintenance, seven said they could not change their schedules because of commitments involving technical consultants and logistics. However, two generating companies agreed to adjust their maintenance timetable.

Marasigan said the review covers Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao, with particular attention given to the interconnected Visayas and Mindanao systems. He noted that Cebu is currently receiving about 450 megawatts of electricity from Mindanao while Therma Visayas Units 1 and 2 remain offline for scheduled maintenance.

He also cited the recent shutdown of a KEPCO SPC generating unit after operators detected "a hissing sound in their boiler tubes."

"They had an observation that there is a hissing sound in their boiler tubes. So they have to shut it down to check and validate what it is," Marasigan said.

The inspection later found no defects, allowing the unit to reconnect to the grid on June 21.

Energy Secretary Sharon Garin said planning maintenance has become more difficult as changing weather patterns continue to alter the country's traditional peak demand periods.

"There are several types of outages. There are scheduled outages, and there are forced or unplanned outages when a power plant suddenly encounters a problem," Garin said.

She explained that preventive maintenance is usually scheduled well in advance and often requires specialized personnel from overseas, making last-minute adjustments difficult.

Despite these challenges, she said the DOE has begun working with power generators to improve maintenance planning for 2027 while ensuring facilities continue to undergo regular inspections.

Meanwhile, the DOE announced that the Visayas grid is no longer under yellow alert following the return to service of Panay Energy Development Corp. Unit 3, which restored 150 megawatts of generating capacity.

Therma Visayas Units 1 and 2, each capable of producing 169 MW, are expected to return to operation by the end of August. The Visayas grid also continues to receive imported power from Luzon and Mindanao to help maintain supply while the units remain under maintenance.

Marasigan said the DOE is also pursuing additional backup capacity, battery energy storage systems and other clean energy technologies in Cebu, Panay, Negros and Bohol to strengthen the reliability and resilience of the Visayas power grid.(MyTVCebu)