CEBU -- A massive power service interruption was experienced in a huge part of the service area of the Visayan Electric Company (VECO) in Metro Cebu past midnight today.
VECO customers in the south--from Barangay Pardo, Cebu City to San Fernando town--had electricity when VECO lost connection with the Leyte grid. In some areas in the south, though, voltage fluctuations were experienced. VECO's franchise area is from Liloan in the north to San Fernando in the south.
"We apparently could not get supply from the power plants in the Leyte grid," said Theresa Sederiosa, VECO corporate communications manager. VECO lost connection with the Leyte grid at 1:48 a.m. and lost about 198 MW.
As of 3:50 a.m. Sederiosa said VECO was able to restore 74 MW and first re-energized feeders in areas where hospitals operate.
Sederiosa said they are coordinating with the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) for the actual cause of the power interruption. VECO, she added, could not say yet whether customers can expect intermittent power interruptions as a result, pending the outcome of the investigation on the incident.
The NGCP, in a statement issued this morning, said it completed the restoration of power transmission services in the Visayas grid at 9:09 a.m. It also said that the power interruption affected Cebu, Bohol, Leyte and Samar, and that investigation and analysis of the cause of the outage is ongoing.
In the meantime, VECO is working at restoring power supply coming from other sources within the island.