FORTY-SEVEN days after Typhoon Odette (Rai) hit Cebu, Olango Island remains without power with the island’s lone power plant still to be repaired amid the huge damage it sustained and the lack of parts to replace the broken ones.
To alleviate the hardships of the islanders, Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Junard “Ahong” Chan brought generators to the island Monday for installation in the barangay halls so people can charge their cell phones, power banks, emergency lights and other devices for free.
In a post on the city government’s Facebook account Monday, Jan. 31, 2022, Chan said it was fortuitous that solar street lights had been installed on the island as they now illuminate Olango’s dark streets at night.
Lack of power is not the only thing Olango residents have to contend with.
Odette damaged the island’s schools, hospital and police station and almost all houses, Chan said last December.
Many pump boats in Olango used to serve tourists also capsized or were washed away.
As for the Lapu-Lapu mainland, Chan reported that Mactan Electric Company (Meco) had already repaired up to 95 percent of feeders and that it would just be tapping the lines from the poles to the households in the coming days to bring electricity back to homes.
Meco covers Lapu-Lapu City and the neighboring town of Cordova on Mactan Island.
Last Jan. 19, more than a month after the storm, Meco said it had electrified 80 percent of its total customer count but that this did not mean that these customers were already receiving electricity as “the readiness of the customer side to be energized” still had to be considered.
Meco cited damaged or exposed power lines extending from electric meters to homes as examples of problems that need to be resolved before light can return to households.
Meco has not given a target date for full restoration of electricity in the areas it covers, saying its challenges included the damage to 60 percent of its line assets; theft of its wires, transformers and meters; and the difficulty in sourcing materials to replace the damaged ones.
Power has yet to be fully restored in other parts of Cebu as well after Typhoon Odette knocked down power lines and caused a province-wide blackout.
In Metro Cebu, the Visayan Electric Company has energized 425,685 or nearly 89.8 percent of its 474,182 affected customers so far, leaving more than 48,000 customers still without power.
Visayan Electric covers the cities of Cebu, Mandaue, Talisay and Naga and the towns of San Fernando, Minglanilla, Consolacion and Liloan.
Meanwhile, Visayan Electric announced that it will resume its meter reading activities for all its customers starting Feb. 2, 2022.
This resumption of meter reading activities will cover part of the December consumption of some customers before the typhoon, as well as the consumption after energization post-Typhoon Odette.
Customers will start receiving their bills by the second week of February, but Visayan Electric has extended the due date of bills to 30 days from its issuance.
This is in compliance with the Energy Regulatory Commission Advisory for Typhoon Odette issued on Dec. 22, 2021.
“Since we have suspended meter reading and billing of accounts immediately after Typhoon Odette, please expect that the service period of your February billing may cover more than one month’s consumption, depending on the last reading of your account prior to the typhoon and the reading cutoff of the current bill,” explained Visayan Electric president and chief operating officer Raul C. Lucero.
The electric utility reminded its customers that billing is based on consumption -- those who were energized early after the typhoon will already be billed based on their consumption.
There will also be no disconnection for all customers until March 31, 2022, but the electric utility encourages its customers who have the capacity to pay to settle their bills as soon as possible to prevent bill shock.
For more details, customers are advised to call its Customer Service Hotline 230-8326 or send a message at its official FB or Twitter pages. (With PR)