Power outage affects city, barangays, adjacent towns

CEBU, Philippines - Several areas in Cebu City and neighboring towns experience at least a one-hour brownout early in the afternoon yesterday.

The affected barangays are Zapatera, Day-as, Kamputhaw, Sambag II, San Antonio, Cogon Ramos, Sta. Cruz, Talamban; and two other city mountain barangays.

At 2 p.m., the towns of Consolacion and Liloan sustained a one-hour power outage which was restored an hour after.

Brownouts also occurred in parts of barangays Inayawan, Poblacion and Pardo, as well as in Talisay City and in the towns of Minglanilla and Naga.

Ethel Natera, spokesperson of the Visayan Electric Company Inc., said that there is a power shortage in the Cebu-Negros-Panay grid, where VECO belongs, because of the maintenance works of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines’ Leyte-Luzon transmission line that started last October 19 and is scheduled to wrap up on October 24.

Natera said that VECO has been asked by NGCP to share in the load shedding scheme.

Yesterday morning, Natera said that VECO’s share of the 60-megawatt shortage was 20mw and that in the afternoon, they have shared 26.85mw.

NGCP-Visayas corporate communications officer Belinda Canlas said that the PNOC-Energy Development Corporation Malitbog (7mw) was on preventive maintenance shutdown at noontime yesterday and that it is expected to be back on line on October 31.

Canlas said that the HVDC Leyte-Luzon is under preventive maintenance starting October 19 until October 25.

      The HVDC Leyte-Luzon is a high voltage direct current transmission link in the country between geothermal power plants on the island of Leyte and the southern part of Luzon.

The PNOC-EDC also reduced its capability from 490mw to 430mw due to steam separator vessel problem. — Mitchelle L. Palaubsanon/MEEV   (FREEMAN NEWS)