Representatives from the energy sector assured that there will be no power interruptions when Cebu hosts the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit starting this August.
Engr. Antonio Labios, Department of Energy (DOE-7) regional director, said the national office has directed power generators, transmitters and distributors to create contingency plans to ensure continuous supply of power during the meetings.
“The directive of DOE is not only for Cebu but throughout the country, for all the APEC activities,” he said during the weekly Kapistorya forum at the Capitol yesterday.
Cebu will host around 60 conferences and related sessions this August and September.
The APEC meetings in Cebu will be held in five venues — Marco Polo Plaza Cebu, Cebu City Marriott Hotel, Waterfront Cebu City Hotel and Casino, Radisson Blu Cebu and Shangri-La’s Mactan Resort and Spa.
The Visayan Electric Company (Veco) has contingency plans in place, said Systems Operations Manager Juan Miguel Exaltacion.
“We have a contingency scheme for that, where we can restore power in a minimum amount of time,” he said if there are unscheduled interruptions.
Veco will omit its feeder in barangay Lorega, which transmits power to Radisson Blu, and the Kamputhaw feeder, which provides the Marco Polo and Marriott hotels their electrical power needs, from rotational brownouts during the APEC summit dates.
The utility company will also closely coordinate with these hotels in getting their generator sets ready.
“No matter how prepared we are, if anything happens to the Cebu grid, Veco and other utilities no longer have control over that. Hotels should be prepared on their own,” said Exaltacion.
No maintenance work or downtime will be scheduled during the meeting dates by the National Grid Power Corporation (NGCP) Visayas Grid which transmits around 700 MW of power from various generators to utilities in Cebu.
Veco and Mactan Electric Company (Meco) were also asked to conduct their preventive maintenance work before the APEC meetings.
Power demand is expected to increase during this period.
The Cebu Electric Cooperative committed to sacrifice its power supply to help Veco and Meco during the hosting.
Labios said APEC venues will be exempted from automatic or manual load curtailment.
“These venues will also be prioritized for power restoration in case unexpected power outages do occur,” said Labios.
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