Engineer Raul Lucero, president and COO of Visayan Electric, shows the utility firm’s forecast for the reenergization of its franchise areas. | Delta Letigio
CEBU CITY, Philippines — It will take until the end of January 2022 to light up Metro Cebu.
Visayan Electric said they would complete the rehabilitation of the electric line by January 31, 2022, in San Fernando, Naga City, Minglanilla, Talisay City, Cebu City, Mandaue City, Consolacion, and Liloan.
This was the forecast given by the utility provider to the public on December 26, 2021, during a press conference.
Engineer Raul Lucero, president and chief operation officer of Visayan Electric, said that based on their progress in the past days, they forecast to reenergize all 474,182 consumers by then.
Presently, at least 15.8 percent or 74,920 of the consumers have been reenergized. Most of these are hospitals, water pumps of the Metropolitan Cebu Water District (MCWD), government buildings, and essential establishments.
Some portions of the towns and cities have been reenergized as well, especially if they are near the main backbone line and if their line sustained little to no damage.
By December 31, 2021, they expect to power 30 percent of their franchise, and 80 percent by January 10, 2022.
“Atong target is by December 31 mareenergize na nato tanang hospitals and water pumps kay mao man niy gipaprioritize sa atong LGUs (local government units),” said Lucero.
(Our target is by December 31 we can reenergize all our hospitals and water pumps because these are what our LGUs prioritized.)
As of now, 19 out of 31 hospitals in its franchise area, 43 out of 116 MCWD pumps, and 8 out of 31 Abejo Water Pumps have been reenergized.
Visayan Electric targets 80 percent reenergization of each of MCWD and Abejo Water by the end of 2021.
Most devastated areas
Visayan Electric said that the most devastated areas in their franchise were Naga City and Cebu City, which meant that these two LGUs would be given priority of crews of linemen deployed.
Lucero said 725 linemen were now working round the clock to fix the main backbone line, and even feeder lines in hopes to restore the power.
The utility has 216 organic linemen, 343 contractors, and 166 imports from sister companies helping out in Cebu.
“Daghan sa mga empleyado, biktima pud sa typhoon, so for the first three days, medyo nagsige pa tag adjust. Logistically, it’s also a challenge kay nagneed tag 6,000 liters of diesel and 400 liters of gasoline per day,” said Lucero.
(Most of the employees are victims of the typhoon so for the first three days, we were continuously adjusting. Logistically, it’s also a challenge because we need 6,000 liters of diesel and 400 liters of gasoline per day.)
Visayan Electric is also providing food, water, and lodging to all linemen.
Lucero said they could not yet give a projection of reenergization for each LGU because the deployment of crew, with five linemen each, had just begun.
Cebu City has 12 crew, Liloan has 5 crew, Consolacion has 1 crew, Mandaue City had 7 crew, Talisay City has 6 crew, Minglanilla has 1 crew, Naga City has 5 crew, and San Fernando has 1 crew.
Restoration efforts
As for the electric line restoration, Visayan Electric has fixed 47 out of its 55 23 Kv assessed feeders, 183 out of 458 23 Kv line segments, 21 out of 31 69 Kv line segments, and 18 out of 19 substations.
Only the substation in Ayala area in Cebu City has not been restored yet because of the extent of damage.
Visayan Electric is now producing 58.49 megwatts out of its 365 megawatts maximum energy demand.
In order to hasten the restoration progress, Lucero appealed to LGUs to clear the roads and collect the garbage so the crew linemen can easily pass through the roads.
“Clear the roads, remove fallen trees and avoid dumping garbage on the streets,” said Lucero.
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