Homegrown experts at the Institute for Climate and Sustainable Cities (ICSC) said a re-evaluation of Panay Island’s energy mix and its grid resilience measures is imperative following the island-wide power outage last week.
The analysts said remedies can include exploring advanced energy storage technology options, enhancing grid interconnections and strategically integrating renewable energy sources to diversify the island’s energy portfolio.
According to ICSC, there is also a need for more granular monitoring of power reserves per sub-grid, especially in the Visayas where each island exhibits a distinct energy mix and infrastructure conditions.
At present, power reserves are grouped as island clusters across Luzon, the Visayas and Mindanao rather than as a more specific division.
The ICSC noted that during the days-long power interruption incident last week, a yellow alert status was raised over the Visayas grid instead even though a red alert was already warranted.
“The nuances in the operation of the Panay sub-grid, being the tail-end of the network, were overlooked” as a result, the think tank said.
Yellow alerts indicate low power reserve levels and dreadful red alerts are issued when actual power supply proves insufficient against demand, meaning power interruptions are imminent.
The ICSC said the Panay Island blackouts underscore the urgent need for more a distributed and flexible power generation in the country.
“Since the island is heavily dependent on a few centralized coal-fired power plants, any disturbance can have disastrous effects on the entire sub-grid. Generation and grid planning must evolve to embrace more distributed sources to ensure grid stability, reducing reliance on a few power plants,” the think tank said.
Such will make the Panay Island grid more resilient and less susceptible to single-point failures, prove more adaptable to variable demand conditions, the think tank said.
