13-hour blackout hits Bohol

by Philippines News Agency March 6, 2016

http://www.mb.com.ph/13-hour-blackout-hits-bohol/

Tagbilaran City, Bohol – A 13-hour brownout Saturday, March 6 forced thousands of Bohol residents out of their houses and inside malls or roam around nearby beaches.

The power interruption affected all consumers of Bohol Electric Cooperative I and II, and Bohol Light Company, Inc. (BLCI).

In an advisory issued earlier last week, the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) announced that the province would experience power interruption from 5 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday because of the shutdown of the 138-kilovolt Maasin-Ubay submarine cable line, the 100-megavolt-ampere transformer and other equipment at Ubay Substation for annual preventive maintenance.

However, at 6 p.m. Saturday, the NGCP issued another advisory informing that the power interruption would be extended up to 7 p.m. as the company was still working on the line configuration from the Corella-Tagbilaran and Tagbilaran 69kV line sections.

Again, at 7 p.m. another advisory was issued by the NGCP informing the public that it was extending the power interruption by another hour, up to 8 o’clock that evening.

The NGCP explained that as of 7 p.m., the line configuration between the Corella-Tagbilaran and Tagbilaran 69kV line sections had been completed already, but the lines could not be re-energized because of a breaker problem on the part of BLCI.

It was the second power interruption in 15 days and the first to cover the entire Bohol province this year.

Power interruptions in parts of Bohol, affecting only consumers of BOHECO II, were experienced on February 18.

The power interruptions then only spanned from 6-7 a.m. and 4-5 p.m as a result of maintenance work along the 69-kV Ubay-Alicia-Garcia line.

The Bohol Energy Development Advisory Group (BEDAG) continues to find possible sources of renewable energy to establish an inland source of power supply for Bohol so as to be independent from the power source in Leyte.

So far, there have been 12 companies expressing interest in investing on a Bohol-based power generation facility to produce 60-70 megawatts of electricity that will be enough to provide for the consumption of the entire province.