10-hour outage in north Luzon

Manila Standard Today
By Dexter A. See | Sep. 11, 2014 at 12:01am

TUGUEGARAO CITY, Cagayan—A 10-hour blackout is expected today in four Northern Luzon provinces, said the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP).

Lilibeth Gaydowen of NGCP corporate communications and public affairs, said over a million power consumers will have no electricity starting at 8 a.m. in Kalinga and Apayao in the Cordillera Administrative Region and Isabela and Cagayan in Cagayan Valley.

She said the service area is under the Kalinga Electric Cooperative Inc. covering the entire province of Kalinga and portions of Apayao, Cagayan I Electric Cooperative Inc. (CAGELCO I) and CAGELCO II covering the province of Cagayan and the remaining areas of Apayao.

Also included are the Isabela I Electric Cooperative Inc. (ISELCO I) for Reina Mercedes Substation and franchise areas of Isabela II Electric Cooperative Inc. (ISELCO II), said Gaydowen.

“The scheduled power interruption is for the NGCP’s Annual Preventive Maintenance and Testing of equipment at our Gamu Substation; simultaneous with the maintenance and testing of our protection equipment at Santiago and Tuguegarao Substations and correction of hotspots along the Santiago-Gamu-Tuguegarao 230kv transmission line,” she said.

Gaydowen said the 10-hour outage was originally scheduled on September 3 but it was re-set to Sept. 11 to give priority to critical activities in another substation in Region 2.

She said the scheduled interruption was part of the preventive maintenance required to ensure a stable supply to the distribution utilities and subsequently to the consumers.

“We appeal for the utmost understanding from the consumers who will be affected by the scheduled power outages,” Gaydowen said.

“We are inclined to continuously improve the status of our subs-stations and transmission facilities to make sure that we will be ready for untoward incidents that my affect our operations in the coming months.” source