MANILA, Philippines -- Power interruptions in Mindanao may persist until after the Holy Week as the National Power Corporation (NPC) announced targets of bringing back the Pulangui IV hydroelectric power plant to normal operations by April 25 yet.

Plant manager Rudy P. Brioso sent a memorandum to NPC president Froilan A. Tampinco manifesting that “the maintenance of the power plant was intentionally scheduled on Holy Week (or from April 18 to 24) to minimize the impact of the overall power situation in Mindanao.

It has been reported though that because of the maintenance at the Pulangui facility compounded by shutdowns of some units at Agus plant, Mindanao has already been suffering from power interruptions since Saturday (April 16).

Nevertheless, NPC gave assurance that “the situation is expected to improve (starting Wednesday), with the expected synchronization of Agus 6 Unit 4 and Agus 7 Unit 1.”

For the Pulangui plant, NPC qualified that the planned outage “has been agreed upon and is well coordinated between National Power and the National Grid Corporation’s Mindanao System Operation such that stability of power supply in the system is maintained.”

The power firm emphasized that it drained or “dewatered” around 9.5-kilometer-long power channel of the Pulangui facility for it to inspect any cracks or scours.

Based on the power firm’s initial assessment, “the inspection of power channel will be completed by April 23.” The next step for NPC will be to refill it with water up to the required elevation for the start-up of the generation facility, hence, it is anticipated to contribute to grid supply by Monday yet.

“If everything turns out fine with the planned drawdown/dewatering operation, we expect to be back in the grid by April 25,” the plant manager stressed.

Brioso explained that “the power channel had not been inspected for the past 25 years since its commissioning, and that ‘a complete drawdown’ or draining of the water is needed so that a thorough inspection of the structure can be conducted.”

The company added that it opted to take advantage of the seven-day Holy Week period for the maintenance work, since most days during this time could be considered “lower demand periods.”

From Maundy Thursday to Good Friday, the state-run power firm assured that “supply will be sufficient … (as) most factories and commercial establishments will be closed and power demand will be lower.