ILOILO CITY – Power interruptions are expected to hit Negros and Panay Island starting next month due to the upgrading of transmission lines connecting Cebu and Negros Islands, the National Transmission Commission said.

Romulo Vitor, manager of the Network Planning Division of Transco Visayas System Operations, said in a telephone interview, that power supply from Cebu to Negros will be cut off during the installation of new submarine cables connecting the two islands.

The Cebu Negros Uprating Project will double the capacity of transmission lines from 80 to 160 megawatts, said Vitor. This CNUP is part of the upgrading project of the Cebu-Negros-Panay interconnection of the Visayas grid.

The bulk of the power supply in the Visayas is provided by geothermal plants in Leyte . The supply is transmitted through submarine cables to Cebu, Negros and Panay Islands . But power supply has been unstable because the geothermal plants in Leyte could not fully transmit to the rest of the grid because of the limited capacity of the submarine cables.

Vitor said the power shutdown affecting Negros and Panay Island has been tentatively set on February 3, 2008 , from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. ; the whole of April 26-27, 2008 ; and on June 2, 2008 , from 6 a.m. to 4 p.m. Cebu will not be affected.

He said brownouts could occur on April 26-27 especially during the peak hours of power consumption from 5 to 8 p.m. A shortage from 40 to 50 mw is expected that will affect consumers on Panay and Negros Islands .

Vitor said the scheduled shutdown on February 3 and June 2 could be offset by maximizing the geothermal plants in Negros and diesel plants in Panay because this will not cover the peak hours.

The Panay Power Corp., which supplies the bulk of power in Iloilo City , said the city will not be affected by the shutdown.

Vitor said they have advised power distributors to implement manual load shedding schemes to offset the power shortage during the shutdown of the transmission lines.

He said a main concern is the possibility that power plants in Negros and Panay will suffer problems, which will increase the shortage.*NPB

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