DOE: Power restored in northern Cebu towns

CEBU, Philippines - Major power lines in Northern Cebu have been restored two weeks after these were heavily damaged by super typhoon Yolanda.

Department of Energy-7 director Antonio Labios yesterday said that all Northern Cebu towns including the cities of Danao and Bogo have been energized. Although power supply is already available in all towns and cities in the north, Labios explained that some barangays may not have power yet because of the ongoing restoration of the lateral lines.

"Siga na ang tanan nga lugar sa northern part of Cebu but restoration is still ongoing for the lateral lines and mountain barangays," Labios said.

Based on the DOE presentation of the power situation in the Visayas, the backbone lines of Cebu Electric Cooperative II serving the towns of Compostela, Borbon, Tabogon, Tabuelan, Tuburan, and Carmen as well as the cities of Bogo and Danao were already restored.

These backbone lines are also partially servicing the towns of Catmon, Sogod and San Remigio.

Labios said that as of yesterday the town of Medellin is 18 percent energized while Daanbantayan is 11 percent energized. He added that all service areas of Cebeco I and III were already restored.

The Bantayan Electric Cooperative, which serves the three towns in Bantayan Island (Bantayan, Sta. Fe and Madridejos), has already restored 50-percent of its backbone lines and has energized some areas near the BIPCOR diesel power plant.

The Visayan Electric Company on the other hand is still implementing a rotational brownout just like the Mactan Electric Cooperative due to limited supply of power from the grid.

The Camotes Electric Cooperative reported that it has energized the town centers of Poro and San Francisco in Camotes Island using the 250kw supply from the Poro National Power Corporation-Small Power Utilities Group power plant. The SPUG power plant in Pilar, Camotes Island was heavily damaged by the typhoon.

Meanwhile, despite Cebu's power shortage, the province shared its limited supply to Bohol via the Ormoc-Maasin submarine cable to augment the power requirement for yesterday's special barangay elections.

"This is what we called sharing system. Bisan kuwang ang supply of power sa Cebu, still Cebu shared," Labios said.

Labios said that the 23-megawatts that we shared came from the submarine cable that connects from Daanbantayan to Tabango, Leyte. The supply was diverted using the interconnection from Daanbantayan to Ormoc then to Maasin and Bohol.

The Province of Bohol also lost its power after the infrastructure was damaged by the 7.2 magnitude earthquake that hit the province last October 15.

The situation was aggravated by the super typhoon Yolanda which wreaked havoc in Eastern Visayas destroying transmission lines of the National Grid Corporation where Bohol get part of its power supply. /FPL (FREEMAN)