Parts of Luzon could see lengthy power outages

Business World Online

Posted on 10:48 PM, October 19, 2010

PARTS of Northern Luzon could be hit by prolonged power outages due to damage caused by typhoon Juan, the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) said.

Metro Manila would have also been hit by brownouts, officials said, but outages set yesterday were called off after capacity increased.

NGCP spokesperson Cynthia D. Perez-Alabanza said 11 towers along the 230-kilovolt Gamu-Tuguegarao transmission line had fallen and would take a while to repair.

"Eleven towers along the 80-kilometer Gamu-Tuguegarao line were toppled. We’re still assessing the damage and we don’t have an estimated time when the permanent towers would be repaired," she said.

NGCP said the provinces of Isabela, Kalinga, Apayao and Cagayan currently had no power. Some areas like Ilocos Sur could see power restored faster because the damaged lines were smaller in capacity and belonged to electric cooperatives.

As typhoon Juan also damaged power lines serving Metro Manila, three-hour rotating brownouts were announced yesterday but NGCP said the situation had been mitigated.

"Masinloc 1 and 2 are down because the Kadampat-Masinloc transmission line was damaged. Unit 1 of Masinloc tripped Monday night while Unit 2 tripped early [Tuesday] morning," Ms. Alabanza said.

"Sual 1 was also reported to have diminished capacity after some difficulty getting coal from coal yards but that has been resolved. Also Sual was limited because the San Manuel-Kadampat line tripped but it has since been fixed." -- E. N. J. David