Negros submarine cable damaged by DPWH being repaired, says NGCP 

BACOLOD CITY—The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) is working to repair its Negros high voltage submarine cable damaged during the Department of Public Workers and Highways (DPWH) re-channeling activities.

The damage had not affected the power needs of Negros and Panay islands, NGCP information officer Michelle Visera said Wednesday.

“This is because Negros and Panay have their own power plants,” she said.

NGCP’s 138-kV high voltage submarine cable that is under repair was damaged during dredging and re-channeling activities on June 15 of the DPWH along Bio-os River in Barangay. Jagna, Amlan, Negros Oriental.

The cable, which interconnects Negros and Cebu, has two circuits of 138-kV submarine cable with 90MW capacity each or a total capacity of 180MW.

Because of the damage to one of the two circuits, transmission capacity is limited to 90MW between the two islands, Visera said.

NGCP’s System Integrity Protection Scheme was automatically activated after the incident to isolate the affected circuit and prevent the overloading of the remaining cable.

Initial reports received by NGCP show that the deviation by the DPWH on the agreed work site added to the incident.

NGCP has requested the local government of Amlan and the DPWH to temporarily stop their operations and contain the oil spill.

“It is unfortunate that this happened at such a crucial time when electricity is critical to COVID-19 response efforts. NGCP assures its stakeholders that all hands are on deck to restore the affected facility and mitigate the impacts of the oil spill and scattered cable debris,” a company statement said.

The extent of the damage was fully assessed on June 23 and 24. Coordination were ongoing with partner foreign technical experts for the start of actual repair activities, it added.

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