ALL three electric cooperatives in Negros Occidental have not scheduled any power interruptions today, May 14, to prevent possible delays and problems on the conduct of Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan (SK) elections.
Sulpicio Lagarde Jr., general manager of Central Negros Electric Cooperative (Ceneco), yesterday, May 13, said the distribution utility has already conducted necessary measures like preventive maintenance in the previous weeks to prevent power disturbances during the actual day of elections.
Lagarde said as long as there is power from the grid, their distribution system is capable of providing electricity to the consumers, including schools serving as polling centers.
“Unless there is a major shutdown among generation plants or a major fault in the transmission lines that will not allow the transmission of power towards distribution utilities,” he said, adding that “any problem caused by power interruptions is the last thing that we want to happen.”
Ceneco caters to the biggest number of electric consumers in Negros Occidental, including cities of Bacolod, Bago, Talisay and Silay, and towns of Murcia and Salvador Benedicto.
To enhance the cooperative’s operations today leave of all its field and linemen were canceled to augment the crew intended for an emergency during normal days.
This personnel are on call and will be reporting to the office after voting, Lagarde said, adding that they also created an election task force mainly to monitor power situations in the areas they covered.
Lagarde, who heads the task force, said the Department of Energy (DOE) has required them to report any power interruptions occurred during election day.
Aside from reporting to the DOE and National Electricity Administration (Nea), the task force will also make sure that the cooperative can respond immediately to problems that may occur.
"There is currently a stable power supply," he assured, adding that "we are all posted for the election day."
Other two distribution utilities, Negros Occidental Electric Cooperative (Noceco) and Northern Negros Electric Cooperative (Noneco), also assured their consumers of stable supply of power today.
Noceco caters to consumers in the south, from Pulupandan to Hinoba-an, while Noneco serves those in the north, from E.B. Magalona to San Carlos City.
Jonas Discaya, general manager of Noceco, said unless there is an occurrence of the typhoon and other natural phenomena then there would be no power interruptions.
Normally, there are no planned outages during such occasion, Paulino Almedelia, corporate planning department of Noneco, said.
"We also have standby crew to monitor the lines so that if ever there are unplanned interruptions we can be able to respond immediately," Almedelia added.