Tuesday, October 4, 2016

End Boracay power woes, groups ask



By: Nestor P. Burgos Jr. 12:03 AM October 4th, 2016

ILOILO CITY—Residents and businessmen have called on Boracay Island’s power distributor to address outages that have been hitting the island-resort in Aklan province in the past few months.
They said cases of power interruption, some lasting a few minutes while others up to several hours, have inconvenienced residents and operators of small shops and inns in the past few months, resulting in losses.
While big resorts and hotels have power generator sets, most houses and businesses rely on electricity supplied by the Aklan Electric Cooperative (Akelco), said Dionisio Salme, president of the Boracay Foundation Inc., a group of business operators on the island.
Akelco is the sole power distributor in 17 Aklan towns and in Libertad and Pandan towns in nearby Antique province.
Salme said the situation has improved in recent days, but using power generators, he noted, would mean additional costs for businesses and residents.
Alexis Regalado, Akelco general manager, said a 19-hour outage from Sept. 24 to 25 was due to preventive maintenance activities of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP), the transfer of Akelco lines in some areas and tripping in some power lines on the island.
Shorter outages were caused by strong winds brought about by the habagat (southwest monsoon) season, Regalado said.
He said tree branches touching power lines also triggered power interruptions.
“We are already addressing the problems and have started clearing operations of tree branches near our lines,” Regalado told the Inquirer.
He said they are also planning to install more insulators and upgrade their system to minimize cases of power interruption.
Consumers have turned to social media, through the Facebook group page, “Concerned Akelco Consumers,” to press the electric cooperative and concerned government agencies to address the problem.
The town council of Malay and the Aklan provincial board have separately summoned representatives of Akelco, NGCP and the Department of Energy to discuss the problem and to provide solutions.
Boracay Island experienced prolonged outages in the early 2000s due to lack of supply and problems in transmission and distribution.
Electricity is supplied to Boracay through submarine cables from the Aklan mainland.

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