MORE than a month after Typhoon Odette, the Mactan Electric Company (Meco), which serves Lapu-Lapu City and Cordova town on Mactan Island, has electrified 80 percent of its total customer count as of Wednesday, Jan. 19, 2022.
“This means that for every Meco’s 100 electric connections, 80 already have their electricity,” the company said in a statement.
However, Meco also said it could only assume 100 percent target restoration of its system, and “not the readiness of the customer side to be energized.”
The distribution utility said it was working “24 hours a day and seven days a week, to achieve 100 percent electrification,” the target date of which it could not specify due to the challenges it faced aside from the damage Typhoon Odette (Rai) had caused on its facilities last Dec. 16.
“Days after the typhoon, 60 percent of Meco’s line assets were damaged. Our wires, transformers and meters were stolen,” it said, adding it was also short on supply of materials to replace the damaged ones.
Additional challenges in power restoration were the traffic congestion due to unfinished road constructions; fallen trees, debris and posts blocking the road; and road-right-of-way issues in erecting electric poles.
Meco said there were also issues on the readiness of the customer side to be energized.
Damaged line connections could cause fire if electricity was reconnected in that place, it said, citing incidents in Barangays Babag and Pajo where electric sparks flashed when the power was restored, forcing Meco to shut down power in the area again.
Some destroyed electric meters also still had to be replaced, while in other cases where meters were intact, “the power line from the meter to the house is cut off or exposed and passing through tin roof, making it dangerous to residents in the area if the power is restored.”
House owners are encouraged to report to Meco, or the company’s accredited linemen to inspect their local connections and do minor repairs if necessary to prepare for power restoration, the company said.
As to the rest of Metro Cebu, the Visayan Electric Company announced it had restored power supply to 77.55 percent or 367,738 of its 474,182 affected customers in its franchise area in Metro Cebu as of 12 p.m., Wednesday, Jan. 19.
The number of Visayan Electric’s customers who still have no power supply had dwindled to 106,444 as of 12 p.m. Wednesday.
The power distributor had promised to restore power to 100 percent of its affected customers by Jan. 31.
At Cebu Province’s western seaboard, the Cebu III Electric Cooperative (Cebeco 3) had restored power supply to 68.66 percent or 72,401 of 105,452 affected households in its franchise area as of 10 a.m. Tuesday, Jan. 18.
Only 33,051 households had no power supply as of Tuesday, 33 days after the onslaught of Typhoon Odette, which devastated central and southern Cebu on Thursday evening, Dec 16.
Cebeco 3 distributes electricity to Toledo City (38 barangays) and municipalities of Pinamungajan (26), Aloguinsan (15), Balamban (28) and Asturias (27) on the western side of Cebu.
The power distributor also serves 11 mountain barangays in Cebu City.
According to Cebeco 3 in its report, the power restoration efforts in Balamban had reached 97.79 percent after electricity returned to 22,836 of 23,352 households. Only 516 households remain without power.
Cebeco 3 aims to restore the power supply in the town to 100 percent by January 24.
Next on the list is Asturias. The electricity had returned to 93.01 percent or 11,025 of the 11,853 total households served by Cebeco 3.
Cebeco 3 aims for full restoration of electricity in Asturias by Jan. 20.
In Aloguinsan, electricity returned to 5,275 (81.25 percent) of 6,492 households, and the remaining 1,217 households are expected to get back their electricity by Jan. 26.
The City of Toledo still had 19,868 households that had no electricity as of Jan. 18. This after power supply returned to 25,848 (56.54 percent) of 45,716 households. Cebeco 3 aims to complete the restoration by either Jan. 30 or Jan. 31.
In Pinamungajan, power supply had been restored to only 46.86 percent or 6,697 of 14,291 households. Cebeco 3 aims to restore electricity to the remaining 7,594 households by Jan. 28.
In the 11 barangays of Cebu City served by Cebeco 3, the electricity was restored to only 19.21 percent or 720 of 3,748 households. The completion target is by Jan. 31.