Stable power in Cebu for the holidays

CEBU and the rest of the Visayas will have ample power supply during the Christmas season despite power interruptions over the weekend, an official of the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) said yesterday.

“We have enough power. It was just maintenance activities. If we see the need to get augmentation from the Luzon grid and other sources, we will facilitate,” said Ma. Rosette Martinez, NGCP Visayas spokesperson.

While there is adequate supply, Martinez said they expect power demand to go up during the holidays.

As of 6 a.m. on Dec. 4, the Visayas Grid had a 2,186-Megawatt (MW) system capacity, a peak of 1,721 MW, and reserves of 465 MW.

The Luzon grid, on the other hand, had reserves of 1,385 MW.

Power interruption was experienced for 10 hours in some parts of southern Cebu due to work on transmission lines in the area.

The affected areas were Carcar City and the towns of Sibonga, Argao, Dalaguete, Alcoy, Boljoon, Barili, Ronda, Alcantara, and the greater portion of Moalboal, all of which are served by the Cebu I Electric Cooperative (CEBECO I).

Martinez said they shut down the Naga-Sibonga 68-kilovolt (kV) line from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m to facilitate the installation of new billing meters and instrument transformers.
“Overtime, we need to change these parts because they won’t be as good as when they were brand new,” she said.

During that time, Martinez also said the distribution utility also performed maintenance activities on their own feeders.

The province of Bohol, meanwhile, experienced a 13-hour blackout due to repairs done on Project 2 of the Ormoc-Maasin 138-kV line from 4 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday.

Normal operations resumed once the repairs were completed.

Several establishments in Tagbilaran City, the province’s capital, were closed on Saturday morning because they didn’t have generator sets.