Upgrading spawns 10-hour blackout
DAGUPAN CITY- A 10-hour blackout hit central Pangasinan last Tuesday in spite of the presence of two big power plants in the province.
Fortunately, the blackout was a scheduled interruption for maintenance and upgrading not an indication of an existing deficiency in the power infrastructure servicing the grid.
According to Dagupan Electric Corporation’s Engr. George dela Cruz, sub-station operations section head, the 10-hour power interruption was due to the commissioning of the Labrador 100 mega volt ampere (MVA) substation by National Transmission Corporation (TransCo), transferring 57 LR4 (line 4) from 50 MVA to 100 MVA, and facilitating line maintenance along the Labrador-Binmaley-Calasiao 69 kilovolt (KV) line.
He said Decorp, a distribution facility, is dependent on TransCo to deliver the power supply from the National Power Corporation.
A maintenance upgrade is done twice or even thrice a year, dela Cruz said, and last Tusday was the first this year.
The blackout slowed down business and trade in Dagupan City and in the towns of Calasiao, Sta. Barbara and in barangay Bolingit in San Carlos City from 7 a.m. up to 5 p.m.
Some schools even cancelled their classes from mid-morning to the rest of the day while some stores closed shop the whole day.
Pangasinan hosts San Roque Dam in San Manuel and San Nicolas towns which has an installed rated capacity of 345 megawatts (MW). It serves primarily as a peaking plant each day during periods when the electrical output of base and intermediate load power plants cannot fulfill consumer demand.
Another power plant in the province is the 1,200 megawatt Sual coal- fired power plant in Sual town. – EVA
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