Veco urges LGUs to enforce kite ban

This photo which appeared in the ‘Siloy Is Watching’ portion on Page 11 of the April 4, 2016 issue of Cebu Daily News shows a vendor selling kites near power lines at the corner of Gorordo Avenue and Escario Street.

The Visayan Electric Co. (Veco) called on local government units to strictly enforce a ban on kite flying one week before and one week after the May 9 elections to avoid power tripping.

Mark Anthony Kindica, Veco AVP-Engineering Operations, said they identified areas mostly in Cebu City’s south district and Talisay City where kite flying is prevalent.

Engr. Valentin Saludes III, Veco vice president for engineering, said kites usually end up getting tangled with Veco’s power lines and can cause power trip-off.

Saludes said they have recovered almost 400 kites that got tangled to their power lines in Cebu City, Mandaue and Talisay City.

He also said they’re removing campaign materials posted on Veco posts.

Veco is intensifying line -clearing programs in order to clear obstructions such as tree branches, kites and other objects near secondary lines that can cause brownouts.

Kindica said they are also implementing other proactive measures to ensure that their facilities and systems are running well and prevent brownouts in polling precincts.

These include load center checking where they inspect transformers and other Veco facilities, massive line facilities maintenance and enhancement works and precinct wiring integrity check.

As of yesterday, Veco reported that 44 percent or 104 out of the 236 polling precincts under their service area have been inspected.

Veco’s service area covers the cities of Cebu, Talisay, Naga and Mandaue and the towns of Consolacion and Liloan in the north and Minglanilla and San Fernando in the south.

In the cities of Cebu and Mandaue, 62 percent and 75 percent of polling precincts respectively have been checked.

About 29 percent of the polling precincts in Talisay, Naga and other towns were also inspected.

Veco is also working with the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) to exempt polling centers and canvassing centers from rotational brownouts.

In cases of power outages, Kindica said they are deploying a limited number of mobile 5-kW generators in strategic locations such as the Commission on Elections (Comelec) Command Center.

Veco will also exhaust its interruptible load program (ILP) before implementing rotational brownouts.  Veco will be deploying 122 personnel on May 9.

In cases of immense blackout, Veco has also an agreement with power generation companies which are ready to feed power anytime.

Ma. Rosette Martinez, spokesperson of NGCP Visayas, said their power outlook on May 9 indicated that they may have a 190 MW reserve for that day.

As of Thursday evening, the yellow alert in the Visayas grid has been lifted.

Martinez said they could always source power from the Luzon grid to augment the existing supply if needed.