CDO boxing fans assured of power during Pacquiao-Mayweather fight

CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY, Philippines – An official of a local power cooperative yesterday assured boxing fans here of adequate power supply during the fight between Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. on May 2.

Marilyn Chavez, spokesperson for the Cagayan Electric Power and Light Co. Inc. (Cepalco), said it has become a standard operating procedure for the power cooperative to ensure that no power interruption would occur every time Pacquiao has a fight.

Although the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines is implementing rotational blackouts in Mindanao, Chavez said Cepalco has sufficient power supply this summer.

She said the six-hour blackout last Wednesday was due to the shutdown of the power unit 1 of Steag State Power Inc.

Steag’s unit 1 bogged down a few days after it went online on March 12, following a one-month scheduled preventive maintenance from Feb.12.

Chavez said Cepalco’s sister company, the Mindanao Energy Corp., will supply 42 megawatts of power on top of the implementation of the interruptible load program.

She said Cepalco would ask its industrial clients to use their generator sets so residential users would be prioritized in the power allocation.

Cepalco supplies power to 65 barangays of this city and the municipalities of Tagoloan, Villanueva and Jasaan, all in Misamis Oriental.