Power restored in most parts of Mindanao

COTABATO CITY, Philippines - Power was restored in most parts of Mindanao by noontime Thursday after a 16-hour outage, the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) said.

Melfrance Capulong, spokesperson of the NGCP, said supply of electricity has been restored  at about 9:30 a.m. Thursday in the cities of Davao, Gen. Santos, Zamboanga, Pagadian, Cagayan de Oro, and in the provinces of Misamis Oriental.

Power was restored in parts of Central Mindanao – the cities of Cotabato, Tacurong, Kidapawan, Koronadal, and the adjoining provinces of Maguindanao, North Cotabato, South Cotabato and Sultan Kudarat --- by past 2 p.m. the same day.

Power in Kidapawan City, host to the Mt. Apo geothermal power plants, was restored at 11 a.m. Thursday, according to Capulong.

Capulong said NGCP is still trying to establish what caused the massive outage that began late Wednesday.

The Energy Development Corp. (EDC) said the Mt. Apo geothermal plants in Kidapawan City were producing normal output before many parts of Mindanao were plunged into darkness.

The EDC is the private operator of the two geothermal plants at the foot of Mt. Apo.

Ivy Henson of EDC said the two geothermal plants are operating on “household capacity” and are waiting for the NGCP’s order to resume supplying power online.

By 11:20 a.m. Thursday, the EDC’s two geothermal plants were already running on “isochronous mode,” supplying 14 megawatts of power to the Mindanao grid.

Like NGCP, Henson said the EDC has no idea what triggered the massive power interruption in mainland Mindanao.