NGCP starts fixing damage on UN Avenue underground cable

NGCP personnel checked the underground cable, the 138 kilovolts line, that was accidentally damaged by personnel of a contractor of the Visayan Electric on Monday afternoon. | CDND Photo / Mary Rose Sagarino

MANDAUE CITY, Cebu – Personnel of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) on Tuesday checked the underground cable, the 138 kilovolts line, that was accidentally damaged by personnel of a contractor of the Visayan Electric.

But NGCP foreman Arnold Rebutazo said that they will still have to excavate the affected area to determine the extent of the damage.

“[Most likely] ilisan og cable. Masumpayan, ilaha ng trabahoan sa contractor,” said Rebutazo.

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However, he could not yet say when the repair of the damaged line of their control substation will be complete.

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In an advisory posted on its official Facebook page also on Monday afternoon, Veco said that personnel of their contractor, who were doing line upgrade along United Nations Avenue in Mandaue City, accidentally hit NGCP’s System Integrity Protection Scheme on Monday afternoon.

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As a result, brownouts were experienced in parts of Lapu-Lapu and Mandaue Cities that are getting power supply from Visayan Electric and Mactan Electric Company Inc.

VECO said they immediately transferred loads affected by the outage to other feeders to restore power in the affected areas.

Moreover, VECO said they are currently conducting an investigation into the matter.

It added that the personnel, who accidentally hit the NGCP line was taken to the hospital, but it did not mention why.