P56M lost due to power outage

Sunstar Network
By Reuel John F. Lumawag 
Friday, March 7, 2014 

DAVAO -- The Davao City Investment Promotion Center (DCIPC) estimated that economic losses incurred by the Mindanao-wide power outage on February 27 were pegged at P48 million to P56 million. 
"Between 3:57 a.m. up to 9:45 a.m. of February 27, the gross domestic product of the city for this period should have an estimated total of P80,773,887. With due consideration that some transactions are not computed hourly but daily (example, a daily rental will cost the same regardless of the number of hours of power outages), and that business transactions were not completely paralyzed, we can safely say that the losses would be around 60 percent to 70 percent of the P80 million, so that's about P48 million to P56 million," said DCIPC officer-in-charge Ivan Cortez in an email to Sun.Star Davao. 
The estimation was based on the center's computation of the estimated hourly gross domestic product (GDP). 
Cortez clarified that estimates based on the expected hourly GDP are "with due consideration to the premium hours (where the bulk of transactions are being done), as well as the sleeping hours (when most are asleep and not doing any business transaction)." 
Last February 27, most parts of Mindanao experienced power outage while Davao suffered prolonged city-wide power and water interruptions. 
Among the affected areas were Davao del Sur, Davao Oriental, Compostela Valley, North Cotabato, Bukidnon, Maguindanao, South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Zamboanga City, Butuan, General Santos, and Cagayan de Oro. Transmission service though was restored around 9:30 a.m. in the cities of Davao, General Santos, Zamboanga, Pagadian, Cagayan de Oro, and parts of Misamis Oriental, said the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP). 
According to the Department of Energy (DOE), initial reports indicated that a tripping that emanated from the breaker of the Agus 1 switchyard has somehow caused the island-wide outage. 
However, an official report on the root cause of the outage has yet to be released by DOE. 
At present, DOE and the National Transmission Corporation are still gathering all facts to validate reports. They are working closely with the NGCP and the National Power Corporation to address the problem. source