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Wednesday, March 05, 2003
Mindanao suffers another major power outage
CAGAYAN DE ORO -- Another major power outage struck urban areas in Mindanao from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesday, just a few days after the National Power Corporation (Napocor) completed repairs to its bombed transmission lines in the Mindanao Power Grid.
Napocor-unit National Transmission Commission (NTC) spokesperson Rufino Magbanua said two power lines "collapsed" separately on Tuesday, causing the blackout in key Mindanao areas except Iligan City.
Col. Johnny Macanas, 4th Infantry Division spokesperson, ruled out "sabotage" in the latest power outage but said they increased the number of troops deployed in Lanao Province to secure power posts.
Presidential Assistant for Mindanao Jesus Dureza, also the Mindanao Economic Development Council (Medco) chair, placed the cost of the economic loss brought about by the unstable power supply at millions of pesos.
"But the loss in this blackout is lesser as compared to last week," he told Sun.Star Tuesday.
Nevertheless, Dureza said he is hopeful that the power supply will normalize soon.
Regional Development Council (RDC) 10 co-chair Jose Nebrao repeated that if the brownouts were to continue, traders would be counting their losses in billions of pesos.
Nebrao, who is also the executive director of the Resource Innovation for Small/Medium Enterprises (Rirse) Foundation Inc., said small businessmen were most affected by the power outages.
Big bang
Another NTC substation in Sarangani, Cotabato was destroyed after suspected MILF rebels fired grenades at it.
NTC official Magbanua said the destruction did not cause an outage but two power posts in Lugait, Misamis Oriental were destroyed.
Iligan substation manager Adelino Dawis said residents heard a big bang at around 8:15 a.m. Tuesday in Sitio Tinabirak, Barangay Macao, Lugait, Misamis Oriental.
At about the same time, Dawis said their Lugait-Carmen 69 KV line went off so they sent their linemen to check it out.
They discovered that Structure No. 9 was damaged and that one of the insulators "failed".
"But this didn't cause the blackout as this line was not the one carrying the bulk of electricity for the entire Mindanao," he explained.
Dawis said the Lugait-Tagoloan 138 KV line, which carries electricity even outside of Davao City, went out at around 10:40 a.m. Tuesday and this caused the power outage in Mindanao urban areas.
They have yet to determine what caused the 138 KV line to trip.
Island mode
To deal with the problem, NTC NorCenMin manager Emy Abellanosa said they have employed an "island mode" status and have divided the Mindanao grid into five sub-grids.
Napocor Southeastern Mindanao acting manager Jojo Palma said among the areas affected by the power interruption are Cagayan de Oro, Cotabato City, Butuan City, Surigao, General Santos, Sarangani Davao Oriental and South Cotabato.
Abellanosa said they are also implementing a "power rationing" scheme as ordered by the Napocor in Iligan.
"It is them at Napocor-Iligan who decide which area will receive this or that amount of power. We at the NTC transmit these through our power lines," he said
He encouraged the public to conserve electricity at every possible opportunity.
Power supply only returned to normal Tuesday at 4:30 p.m. after Napocor made operational the Maria Christina grid.
Tuesday's brownout was the second major one to hit Mindanao in less than a week.
Shortly before midnight of February 27, 90 percent of Mindanao was plunged into total darkness after three transmission lines were toppled down by suspected MILF members.
Adverse effects
The power fluctuations, said National Economic Development Authority (Neda) 10 assistant regional director Ro-ann Bacal, will have adverse effects on Mindanao's economy, both in the short and long term.
"For a while back Mindanao was on its way to economic development but now this...this will be a set back," she said.
She added that foreign embassies might now be reviewing travel advisories for nationals.
Observers said many people were flocking to banks and automated teller machines Tuesday to withdraw cash.
"They panicked because of the blackout, as it was unusual. Outages don't usually last as long as this," said a source who requested anonymity.
Another said he overheard more than five people waiting for their turn the ATM talking about withdrawing cash, as the blackout might take longer than expected.
Bacal said this was normal reaction but called on the public not to panic and resort to hoarding goods. Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro/Sun.Star General Santos
(March 5, 2003 issue)
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