TWO percent or 2,126 of the 105,452 households served by the Cebu III Electric Cooperative (Cebeco 3) still had no power supply as of 3 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 13, 2022.
Cebeco 3 aimed to complete its power restoration on or before Monday, Feb. 14, and it was on track to meeting its target.
The reenergization efforts in the power distributor’s franchise area in western Cebu and in some mountain barangays in Cebu City have been ongoing for 59 days since after Typhoon Odette (Rai), which had either damaged or destroyed infrastructure that included electrical posts and power lines when it struck Cebu on Dec. 16, 2021.
Cebeco 3 said the remaining households waiting for power restoration were situated “very far” and were “hard to access” as these were in mountain villages.
As of 3 p.m. Sunday, Cebeco 3 had restored power supply to 97.98 percent or 103,326 households.
Cebeco 3’s franchise comprises the City of Toledo (38 barangays) and municipalities of Pinamungajan (26), Aloguinsan (15), Balamban (28) and Asturias (27).
The electric cooperative also serves outside its franchise area 11 mountain barangays in Cebu City that are near Balamban.
Within Cebeco 3’s franchise, Balamban leads the pack with 99.58 percent or 23,254 of 23,352 households already having electricity.
Power supply has returned to 99.11 percent or 11,747 of 11,853 households in Asturias.
The town is followed by Toledo City with a reenergization rate of 97.71 percent (44,667 of 45,716 households); Pinamungajan, 96.14 percent (13,740 of 14,291 households); and Aloguinsan, 95.32 percent (6,188 of 6,492 households).
In the 11 barangays of Cebu City served by Cebeco 3, the power restoration has reached 99.52 percent after the reenergization of 3,730 of 3,748 households.
Visayan Electric
As for the power restoration efforts by Visayan Electric Company, the power distributor had restored electricity to 96.97 percent or 459,856 of its 474,182 affected customers as of 12 p.m. Monday, Feb. 14, nearly two months after the onslaught of Typhoon Odette.
Visayan Electric failed to meet its initial target to restore electricity in its franchise area by Jan. 31.
Several factors have delayed the company’s restoration efforts, and one of them is “the magnitude of the damage” of Typhoon Odette inflicted on its lines, poles and transformers, it said in a press statement on Feb. 4.
The Visayan Electric has not set a new timetable for the completion of its reenergization efforts, but it has continued restoring electricity to its remaining customers who still don’t have it.