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Wednesday, December 15, 2004
Transco execs say Mindanao outage no terror attack
By Lizanilla J. Amarga
THE Mindanao power outage that lasted for almost two hours Monday and resulted in an energy generation loss of around 1,800 megawatts amounting to thousands of pesos was not in any way related to the General Santos bombing last Sunday or to any security-related incident.
This was the statement of National Transmission Commission (Transco) president Dr. Alan Ortiz Tuesday even as he admitted that they still do not have a "definitive conclusion" on the nature and cause of the power failure.
Ortiz who disclosed that he was immediately dispatched by Energy Secretary Vincent Perez to personally check on the Mindanao outage and explain it to the public said the failure was due to a "technical disturbance."
"On what is the nature and cause of this technical disturbance, we still do not have a definitive conclusion as of the moment...perhaps we can determine it today," he told the local media in a press conference at Pryce Plaza Tuesday.
Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro did not receive any further information as to the nature and cause of the Mindanao outage as of press time.
Meanwhile, Ortiz clarified that there is no basis to any speculation linking the Mindanao outage Monday to the General Santos bombing last Sunday.
"It (bombing) has no connection whatsoever. We will not hide it from you if there was," he said.
Ortiz arrived Tuesday morning and proceeded to the 4th Infantry Division where he was briefed on the security situation of Mindanao by its commanding general Major General Samuel Bagasin.
He was given an assurance that "everything was normal and no reported movements of any kind" has happened to have caused the incident and that all security measures are now in place to safeguard Tranco's power lines and pylons.
"Nevertheless, it was a grim reminder on how the Mindanao power grid is still very vulnerable," this Transco president remarked.
He added that they are now doing everything they can and pouring out their resources to further upgrade and secure the Mindanao grid system particularly each of their substations and power lines.
In his report to Ortiz, which was rendered during the press conference, Assistant Vice President for Mindanao Systems Operations Eugene Bicar said the Mindanao Grid System Disturbance occurred 3:51 p.m. when the power load was around 900 megawatts.
He said there was however a sudden "transient high restive line fault" along the Abaga-Agus 2 to Agus-Kibawe that resulted to the tripping and overloading of other lines.
Bicar said they switched to isolated operations. The system was normalized at 6:10 p.m. that same day except for the Bukidnon Electric Cooperative (Buseco).
"They still do not have light there (Buseco franchise area) as their is a problem with their feeder. We hope to finish it today or tomorrow," he said.
Bicar outlined his recommendations to further avoid future power disturbances include that of conducting tests on all breakers and relays along with its associated accessories at Agus 2 Hydro Electric Plant and initiate a simulation of all breakers and relays at Agus 2.
Also, to put up line patrols along Abaga-Agus lines and create a committee or taskforce to investigate the root cause of the outage last Monday.
(December 15, 2004 issue)
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