By Danessa Rivera (The
Philippine Star) | Updated July 13, 2017 - 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines - An
estimated three million people in Region 8 and Bohol will have to wait longer
for power to be restored after transmission problems hampered electricity
supply in quake-hit areas.
In a briefing yesterday, Department
of Energy (DOE) Undersecretary Felix William Fuentebella expressed the agency’s
frustration at failing to meet the 10-day timeline set to restore power supply
in earthquake-affected areas.
Based on the latest report from the
National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP), over 100 megawatts (MW) from
Cebu, Luzon and the geothermal plants of Energy Development Corp. (EDC) cannot
be supplied to the provinces hit by the recent magnitude 6.5 earthquake because
of transformer problems in the Ormoc City substation.
“The problem lies in the
transmission lines. Transformers 1 to 6 in the Ormoc substation were damaged by
the magnitude 6.5 earthquake. That was supposed to deliver power towards the
direction of Samar, Leyte and Bohol,” Fuentebella said.
He said NGCP is asking for three
weeks to dismantle and relocate transformers from its Cebu substation to fix
the transformers in the Ormoc facility.
In the meantime, EDC has committed
to deliver 40 MW from its Tongonan geothermal power plant by July 19,
originally set for July 16.
This is the earliest time power can
be supplied to the three island provinces, but this is equivalent to only 14
percent of their total 291 MW requirement, Fuentebella said.
The 40-MW supply would be directed
to government or commercial areas first to aid LGU disaster mitigating efforts
and help consumers start to get back on track, the DOE official said.
Once NGCP completes fixing its Ormoc
substation, an additional 120 MW can be supplied to the quake-hit provinces for
a total supply of 160 MW or 55 percent of the total demand by end of July, he
said.
Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi
earlier set a 10-day timeline to restore power supply in Bohol and Region 8.
To temporarily fill the supply gap,
the DOE is coordinating with the Regional Development Council of Region 8 and
the local government unit in Bohol to look at getting capacity from the power
barges of Phinma Energy Corp., Fuentebella said.
He said they are also in talks with
the Department of National Defense for the immediate transfer of the power
barges to the three island provinces.
Phinma Energy has three power barges
acquired from government. Each barge is a 32-MW barge-mounted bunker-fired
diesel generating power station with four eight-MW identical Hitachi-Sulzer
diesel generator units.
Bohol, for its part, has been
contracting emergency power supply on its own. Fuentebella said the island has
received 10 MW from an embedded diesel plant and is expected to have 7.5 MW
more from the 5-MW Hanopol hydropower plant and 2.5-MW Sevilla power plant.
State
of calamity
Lawmakers in Samar whose districts
have been affected by the magnitude 6.5 earthquake that rocked Ormoc, Leyte
yesterday asked President Duterte to declare a state of calamity in the entire
Region 8 or Eastern Visayas.
Reps. Ben Evardone (Eastern Samar)
and Edgar Sarmiento (First District, Samar) told reporters in a news conference
this would be in the best interest of the province, especially since
restoration of power alone could take months, or by October this year.
“We’re asking Malacañang to declare
a state of calamity in Region 8 because this problem has many implications.
NEDA (National Economic and Development Authority) has in fact estimated that
about P300 million to P500 million is lost daily because there is no power, no
business activity,” Evardone explained.
Aside from the enormity of the
original July 6 tremor, aftershocks that reached up to magnitude 5.6 have also
destroyed, if not severely damaged, the power transmitters of the NGCP, which
only makes power distribution even more difficult.
Evardone disclosed that the
manufacturing industry and the local copra business are down due to the absence
of power, which is expected to take months considering the need for a
substantial amount of electricity for industrial and residential needs.
“If there is a state of calamity,
the Palace, the DOE, DTI (Department of Trade and Industry) and many other
agencies can suspend any price hikes as a result of the situation,” Evardone
said, adding government can send “power barges or generator sets” if only to
help industries resume operations.
For his part, Sarmiento said the
state of calamity is imperative so as to give the local officials, as well as
residents, a “holistic approach” on solving the problem. “We’re looking at
October before power can be restored. That’s too long.”
In a related
development, Quezon City Rep. Winston Castelo proposed the creation of a
commission to conduct an audit and assessment on all government buildings and
public infrastructure to ascertain their earthquake readiness.
Castelo, chairman of the House of
Representatives’ committee on Metro Manila development, said President Duterte
through an executive order could create such a commission.
The proposed Public Infrastructure
Assessment Commission shall conduct a thorough assessment on the structural
integrity of all public buildings and infrastructure as part of ensuring the
country’s readiness for the “Big One.”
“The series of earthquakes we have
been experiencing had shown that some government buildings and public
infrastructure, including roads, bridges, airports, ports and school buildings,
are not structurally sound to withstand a magnitude 7.2 earthquake,” Castelo
noted.
The senior administration lawmaker
said government should be able to identify now those that cannot pass the test
of structural integrity so that retrofitting can be done before the “Big One”
occurs. – With Delon Porcalla
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