posted June 02, 2020 at 10:50 pm by Alena Mae S. Flores
More Electric and Power Corp. on
Tuesday described the power distribution system in Iloilo City which it took
over from Panay Electric Co. (PECO) as rotting, in state of disrepair, a
ticking time bomb.
Roel Castro, President of More
Electric and Power Corp. (MORE Power) said in a statement the current state of
the distribution system prompted the new power distributor to implement
maintenance works on substations, transformers, and distributions in the past
three months, causing brownouts around the city.
Castro said in a statement it was
the required maintenance works that caused the longest brownout was in Jaro
district on May 17 after MORE Power conducted preventive maintenance work on
Jaro substation.
He said the five Iloilo City power
substations were integral part of the power distribution system as they reduce
voltage to a level suitable for local distribution. Apart from stabilizing the
system, substations also protect the consumers from sudden drops or surges of
electricity.
Castro said their inspections on the
substations, transformers, and cables in Iloilo City revealed alarming
conditions of the distribution system.
He said analysis of the substations
indicated high levels of dissolved gas due to degradation of oil and paper
insulation.
“If we liken it to a person who
underwent blood analysis, the oil in the substations have high cholesterol,
uric acid, and triglycerides. The substations are very sick because there are
gases that are over 100 times over the limit. I am sorry to be frank but bulok
(rotten) ang sistema that we took over,” Castro said.
Castro said four of the five
substations are over 90 percent loaded against the normal load of 70 to 80
percent.
In its initial investigation via
thermal scanning, MORE Power and engineering consultant Miescor found out that
there are over 900 connection points or hotspots, and these include 144
transformers, powerlines and other components of the system.
Castro said they have replaced and
upgraded 96 transformers and erected 98 new concrete poles and replaced almost
11,000 new electric meters since they took over from PECO in February.
MORE Power counted 10 overloaded
transformers that exploded in the past three months, he said.
No comments:
Post a Comment