Blackouts not caused by power shortage - electric coop

By Malu Cadeliña Manar

Friday, July 12, 2013

KIDAPAWAN CITY -- After a two-month lull, residents of North Cotabato are again experiencing series of blackouts.

The blackouts, however, are not caused by power shortage, said an official from the Cotabato Electric Cooperative (Cotelco), a power provider for North Cotabato.

Cotelco general manager Engr. Godofredo Homez said power transmission lines along the Paco-Mount Apo routes are undergoing preventive maintenance.

“Heavy rains usually damage our electric poles, which cause power failure. So to prevent that from happening, we conducted preventive maintenance,” Homez said.

In fact, Cotelco linemen replaced two rotten wood poles along the Paco-Mount Apo areas just before the latest typhoon hit Mindanao.

This, Homez said, would prevent Cotelco’s 69 kilovolts sub-transmission line from being damaged by strong winds.

On Tuesday, Homez said the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) in Mindanao conducted preventive maintenance of their 50 megavolt ampere (MVA) sub-station located inside the Energy Development Corporation’s Mindanao geothermal field in Barangay Ilomavis.

The preventive maintenance continued until Wednesday, he said.

The repairs resulted to an hour-long load curtailment since Tuesday.

Homez said the NGCP, through use of their scanners, noticed “loose connections” along the 50MVA sub-station in Mount Apo.

“Loose connections, if not corrected, could cause sparks, thus, might damage the lines,” he explained.

Homez said there is no advisory yet from the National Power Corporation and the NGCP about power shortage.

“The blackouts we’re experiencing right now were results of preventive maintenance, not power shortage. What we have received, so far, from the NGCP was about the ongoing repairs in their lines,” Homez said.  source