(The Philippine Star) | Updated February 23, 2017 - 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines -
The National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) has reiterated its call to respect
right-of-way (ROW) clearance of transmission lines after violations caused
power interruptions in Samar and Leyte last month.
In a statement
yesterday, NGCP made an appeal for the support of the public to keep ROW
clearances free of any and all obstructions.
“While NGCP continues
to work towards improving power transmission lines and facilities, we depend on
our partner communities to help us maintain over 20,000 circuit kilometers of
transmission lines. These right-of-way violations and the subsequent power
interruption and inconvenience to consumers it usually brings are avoidable,”
the grid operator said.
Last month, NGCP
recorded several instances of ROW violations in Samar and Leyte.
It said a coconut tree
breached the ROW clearance of the Borongan-Quinapondan 69-kV line last Jan. 17,
affecting the supply of Eastern Samar Electric Cooperative Inc.
Customers of five
electric cooperatives – Biliran Electric Cooperative, Leyte V Electric
Cooperative (Leyeco V), Leyte III Electric Cooperative (Leyeco III), and Don
Orestes Romualdez Electric Cooperative – suffered from power
interruptions after a bamboo scaffolding fell on the Ormoc-Lemon-Tolosa-San
Isidro 69kV line the same day.
On Jan. 24, Leyeco IV
and Leyeco V suffered a repeat power interruption due to a toppled coconut tree
violating the Ormoc-Baybay 69kV line clearance.
Also on the same day,
strong winds caused a bamboo tree to lean on the Nasaug-Sogod-St.Bernard 69kV
line, affecting the Southern Leyte Electric Cooperative.
NGCP said all power interruptions
caused by ROW violations have since been restored and the lines energized.
Just last week, the
grid operator secured a 72-hour temporary retraining order (TRO) on former
Tuguegarao City mayor Delfin Ting for obstructing a new transmission line
project, the Tuguegarao-Magapit 230kV line.
It is seeking to
request for the extension of the TRO to 20 days to conduct vegetation clearing
of the growing bamboo grove that might obstruct the transmission line within
Ting’s property.
NGCP has been urging
Congress to pass a law that will prohibit ROW violations which will undermine
the security of transmission lines.
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