The National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) is taking steps to prevent any shortage of electricity in the Visayas grid after a landslide in Cebu downed three transmission towers.
NGCP, in a statement, said as of 6 p.m. on Sept. 20, a check on its facilities showed that the tragedy in Naga City affected Line 2 of its 138-kilovolt Colon-Samboan line.
Towers No. 10 and No. 11 fell as they stood on the slopes that slid down the mountainside. This also caused nearby Tower No. 9 to bend and snap in half.
No brownout
But NGCP said even with the lines needing restoration, the damage had no effect on the delivery of electricity to any of its customers.
“Contingency mechanisms are in place to ensure the Visayas grid remains stable,” the grid operator said.
“Preparation for restoration work is already ongoing, while full damage assessment is being completed,” NGCP added.
“Full scale restoration activities will commence once area is declared safe,” it said.
Northern Luzon
In northern Luzon, hit by Typhoon “Ompong” (international name: Mangkhut), NGCP was working on restoring transmission services in two provinces — Apayao and Cagayan.
As of Thursday, three transmission lines were still unavailable. These were the Magapit-Santa Ana line, Tuguegarao-Magapit line and Magapit-Camalaniugan line.
All three lines, which suffered an outage in the evening of Sept. 14, deliver electricity to Cagayan 2 Electric Cooperative.
According to the National Electrification Administration, which oversees 121 electric cooperatives nationwide, damage to power cooperatives’ facilities caused by Ompong had risen to P208.7 million, or double last week’s estimate.
20 provinces
These cover 22 cooperatives in 20 provinces in Ilocandia, Cagayan Valley, Cordillera, Central Luzon and Calabarzon.
Of the 322 communities hit by the storm, services in 170 communities had been fully restored. Also, power services in 92 communities have been partially restored.
In areas served by the National Power Corp.’s (Napocor) Small Power Utilities Group—covering small islands and off-grid areas, Napocor said all power plants were back to normal operations.
These included Batanes, where diesel-fired power plants were stationed in Sabtang, Itbayat and Basco.