Napocor, Transco: Enough power supply in Cebu

CEBU — There will be enough power supply in the province on Election Day, the National Power Corp. (Napocor) and the National Transmission Co. (Transco) said.

The Visayan Electric Co. (Veco), for its part, said contingency plans are in place to ensure uninterrupted power on Monday.

Jules Alcantara, Transco officer-in-charge, said a 24-megawatt power barge is now docked in Iloilo, and an additional 30 megawatts of power are coming from Unit III of the Palinpinon geothermal plant.

Benedicto Banaag, Veco’s transmission and distribution head, said Veco has deployed more emergency groups to augment existing teams in 165 strategic voting areas, including mountain barangays.

Banaag said Veco will bring five-kilovolt generators to these areas, which are feared to encounter power outages.

Veco spokeswoman Ethel Natera said that as early as last month, Veco has carried out pro-active measures to avoid, if not eliminate, power interruption in the precinct level.

These measures involved 69-KV transmission lines and other distribution lines and transformers.

Natera said maintenance personnel will work on a per-shift basis to assist the emergency groups.

She said 15 transformers serving polling precincts were found overloaded and were replaced or upgraded.

Veco is also using a thermo-imaging scanner to check and detect potential "hot spots." The infrared device will help linemen correct problems immediately, Natera said. — Freeman News Service