Peco, PPC apologize for New Year's eve blackout
Firecrackers did it.
This was the explanation of officials representing Panay Electric Company (Peco) and Panay Power Corporation (PPC) of the power blackout which occurred in Iloilo City during the New Year's eve revelry.
The News Today yesterday obtained a "Letter of Explanation and Apology" jointly signed by Engr. Randy Pastolero, Special Assistant to the President of Peco, and Engr. Richard Eugenio, plant manager of PPC, addressed to City Mayor Jerry Treñas saying that the firecrackers lit during the New Year's eve revelry "caused a transient fault in the system which triggered the total shutdown of the PPC power plant."
"This happened despite announcements made by (Peco) to refrain from lighting firecrackers near electrical facilities just days before the New Year. No amount of preparation (on) the part of (Peco) could have prevented that," part of the letter reads.
Based on said letter the blackout occurred around 11:57 p.m. of December 31, 2007. Gradual restoration of power started around 12:15 a.m. of the following day with all the 23 feeders fully restored at 12:40 a.m.
Mayor Treñas earlier demanded an explanation from Peco of the unannounced power interruption which dampened the New Year's eve celebration of city residents.
"To alleviate this situation, PPC will be installing Universal Relays at the PPC plant so that the breaker settings can adapt to the actual loading situation. By doing this, the power plant may be spared from total shutdown during fault conditions," PPC and Peco's letter further reads.
While asking apology for the inconvenience caused by the power interruption PPC and Peco in their letter to the mayor added that they will ask the approval of the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) for installation of additional facilities to cater to the grid interconnection.
"This will restore the original power plant protection design and can isolate the Peco-PPC system when faults from the grid occur," they averred.
Meanwhile, in a separate letter obtained by TNT, Peco further explained the reasons for the power interruptions during the holiday season.
It said the power interruptions "were mostly due to the additional vulnerability of the system since our interconnection to National Power Corp./Transco (National Transmission Corp)."
Peco management explained that the interruption at around 8:59 a.m., December 25, 2007 was due to the momentary line fault in Transco's 69 KV line from Sta. Barbara going to Brgy. Ingore, Lapaz.
It said restoration of power started within 16 minutes from the start of interruption while full restoration of power was achieved after 50 minutes.
On the other hand, the interruption which occurred around 6:02 p.m. of the same day was caused by a detached anchor rod guy wire of Transco which touched the main 69 KV line. "This eventually triggered the opening of 69 KV switchyard Circuit Breaker, cutting off the supply of power to Peco," reads the Peco statement.
Power gradually resumed around 7:03 p.m. with full restoration at 7:54 p.m. due to supply constraints from PPC.