DAVAO CITY—The water level at the two major river sources of the Mindanao grid’s hydroelectric power plants has improved, easing the pressure on distribution and improving power cutbacks in the franchises of electric cooperatives and distribution utilities.
On Monday’s update posted in its web site, the National Power Corp. said the water level has increased to 358.94 meters above sea level (masl) at the Agus 4 at the Ma. Cristina power plant junction of the Agus River in Baloi, Lanao del Norte, up from the weekend’s 358.31masl.
The minimum operation, or critical, level is at 357 masl.
This monitoring junction among the six power plants spread across the Agus River spanning Lanao del Sur and Lanao del Norte, was the only performing hydroelectric power plant over the last few weeks following the repair of Agus 6 and Agus 7 timed with the critically low water level at the Lake Lanao and its tributary river.
The water level at the mouth of the Lake Lanao remained at critical level though, despite the improved rainfall situation in many parts of Mindanao. From late last week’s 699.24 masl, the level went up to 699.27 masl, where critical level is pegged at 699.15 masl.
Even the Pulangui Power Plant 4 in Maramag, Bukidnon, has finally seen stable water supply, from below the critical level the entire week last week, to the current 285.4 masl.
The Davao Light and Power Co., on the other hand, announced in a posting that “due to the favorable weather and the higher allocation of power given by the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines, Davao Light customers may continue to experience shorter or no rotating power interruptions for the day.”
It warned, however, that “if one of the generating power plants will undergo emergency shutdown, rotating power interruptions will be implemented based on the announced duration.”