Blackout hits Cebu, Negros and Panay

A massive blackout yesterday hit the Cebu-Negros-Panay grid after the submarine transmission cables of the National Transmission Corporation located in Leyte accidentally tripped off.

Transco information officer Benjamin Ypil said that the sudden loss of power occurred at 4:09 p.m. affecting the provinces of Cebu, Negros and Panay, as these areas are all interconnected and have one source of power, which is the Tongonan Power Plant in Leyte.

But he said that the problem was immediately fixed and their operations division started receiving power from Leyte again at 4:36 p.m.

Joseph Castillo, operations superintendent of Transco-Visayas told The Freeman that as of 6 p.m. power in Cebu was already 100 percent restored.  He said that about 30 minutes after the blackout, they partially restored power in Cebu.

As of 7 p.m. last night, power in Negros was also fully restored while some parts of Panay were still without power.

Castillo added that the blackout occurred because of the sudden loss of power of their Leyte-Cebu connection affecting their 230-kilovolt submarine cables that connect Ormoc to Tabango both in Leyte and Tabango to Talisay, Daanbantayan in Cebu.

Castillo said that they are still doing technical evaluation to determine the real cause of the incident.  –Wenna A. Berondo/BRP