Miescor group wins bid for installation of Transco steel poles

Meralco Industrial Engineering Service Corp. (Miescor) led a consortium that won the bidding for the installation of some 1,500 steel poles of the National Transmission Corp. (Transco).

Transco president Alan Ortiz said the acquisition of the steel poles to replace the wooden ones was approved by the Transco board recently.

Ortiz said they expect to award next year 3,000 to 4,000 more steel poles.

The replacement of wood poles is one of the strategies being implemented by Transco to minimize power outages.

Based on its 10-year plan, Transco will spend some P600 million for its wood pole replacement program.

In February last year, Transco started replacing the wood poles in Cagayan de Oro City, Misamis Oriental.

Under the program, some 29,000 wood poles will be replaced with new-generation steel poles that can be buried directly to the ground.

Transco will replace the wood poles at the rate of 10 percent of the total requirement a year.

Ortiz said the modernization program has long been overdue as the aging wood poles, especially the low-load 69-kilovolt (kv) lines, are vulnerable to strong winds spawned by typhoons.

He noted that the 69-kv lines toppled during typhoons caused day-long outages in many areas.