METRO Cebu will continue to experience rotational brownouts until Christmas season, said officials from the power generators and utilities in a meeting with Gov. Hilario Davide III yesterday.
This, as the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) continues to assess and restore the damaged transmission lines and substations caused by super typhoon Yolanda and deployed security personnel to guard the toppled structures and lines.
The damage resulted in the shortage of power supply in Cebu and other parts in the Visayas.
THE NGCP said it would take about four to six weeks to repair and restore the power supply.
Davide, however, learned during the meeting that NGCP has a 60-megawatt (mw) reserved power, which is enough to fill up the shortage.
Elmer Cruz, NGCP operations officer, said he will ask permission from his superiors in Manila if they can utilize this reserved power to avoid brownouts.
“Human need is the primordial consideration,” Davide told the officials during the meeting.
“And they should consider Cebu, being the hub of relief operations and rehabilitation process here in the Visayas,” Vice Gov. Agnes Magpale added, who was also in the meeting.
Lowell Belciña, resident manager of the Cebu Electric Cooperative (Cebeco) II, said it will take them at least 21 days to complete the work on the damaged structures in all 11 towns and two cities from Compostela to San Remigio.
Power supply has been restored, though, in major roads and some barangays near the highways.
Davide will once again meet with Cruz on Monday to get updates on the decision of the latter’s top officials on the possibility of using the reserved power.
Capitol’s Public Information Officer Ethel Natera, who was a former power utilities spokesperson, said that electricity is produced by power generators; NGCP, being the operator, will transmit this power to distribution utilities (DUs), such as the Visayan Electric Company, Cebeco and Mactan Electric Company; these DUs will then sell and distribute electricity to household consumers.
Davide called for the meeting yesterday not only from the power generators and DUs but also officials from the Department of Energy and the Cebu Chamber of Commerce and Industry to get updates on the power supply and status of the repair and rehabilitation of the damaged transmission lines.
Cruz said power demand in Central Visayas during peak hours is 1,164 mw, which is higher than NGCP’s generating capacity of only 1,017 mw, or a shortage of 147 mw.
He told Davide that power requirement in the entire Cebu alone at its peak is 723 mw.
But the power generated is short.
Natera said much of Cebu’s power comes from Leyte power generators. But typhoon Yolanda toppled down power lines that connect Leyte to Cebu, resulting in power shortage and brownouts.
NGCP, though, has reserved power from sources other than Leyte.
But the price and manner of selling this reserved power is not definite since it is not assigned to any DUs, said Global Business Power Corp. official Crispin Lamayan.
He said there is a bilateral contract between power generators and distribution utilities where electric supply is fixed, the rates are uniform and are paid monthly.
But with this reserved power supply, there is no contract and power generators are not sure who and how will they be paid.
As restoration of the 500 damaged structures continues, NGCP spokesperson Cynthia Perez Alabanza expressed concern over these exposed structures and on the possibility that unscrupulous people from nearby communities might pilfer the tower parts and use these for the reconstruction of their own damaged houses, or sell or exchange these for other goods.
She appealed to the public to spare the towers as pilfering the parts might impede the repair of the lines.
To date, no pilferage incident had been reported though, Alabanza said.
“It will be more challenging for us if people will steal the part of our damaged towers. We are asking for the public’s cooperation by being vigilant and reporting pilferage incidents to help us bring the power back to the affected islands at the soonest possible time,” said NGCP president and chief executive officer Henry Sy Jr.
In a press statement, Alabanza said that based on NGCP’s latest inspection, 566 transmission towers and poles are either leaning or toppled, and seven substations are affected and remained to be energized.
NGCP is going all out, in terms of resources and manpower to expedite the rebuilding and interconnection of the transmission backbone.
“We are sending 34 additional line crews, composed of eight personnel each, from all over the Philippines to be deployed in the different islands in the Visayas,” said Sy.
According to the NGCP, the 34 line crewmen will repair the transmission lines in Samar, Leyte and Bohol.
Each team will be accompanied by medical and human resource personnel to take care of the crew’s health and logistics needs, like food and accommodation, while re-installing the lines including NGCP contractors.
About 1,400 linemen are already in the Visayas area to help in the restoration of power lines.