HRRAC: High occupancy seen despite slated outage

CEBU, Philippines - The Hotel, Resort and Restaurant Association in Cebu (HRRAC) expects high occupancy rate during the Holy Week break, even in Mactan despite the scheduled power outage on Lenten week.

"All hotels/resorts will be having good occupancy during HolyWeek since everybody wants to have a vacation," said HRRAC president Carlo Suarez.

Suarez said the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) has been constantly coordinating with the hospitality sector players, and members are already aware about this.

"We had a meeting last Friday with the NGCP and HRRAC members, particularly those in Lapu-lapu. We are working closely with NGCP for the scheduled power interruption on April 9-15. All our members are preparing already," said Suarez adding that this power outage is supported by the players as this will eventually benefit the industry in the long run.

"No concerns were raised due to the fact they coordinated early on, and all properties have time to prepare," added Suarez.

NGCP Visayas team, composed of representatives from Engineering, Sys      C to explain the expansion project at Lapu-lapu Gas-Insulated Substation.

NGCP is adding one 100MVA power transformer in view of the expected increase in power demand in Mactan Island. The team informed about activities this April to prepare for the commissioning and energization of the new transformer in July 2017.

Lapu-Lapu City and the town of Cordova on Mactan Island will have no electricity on April 9 (Palm Sunday) and April 15 (Black Saturday.) Power will not be available from 6 a.m. to 5 p.m. on both days.

Rotational brownouts will also be experienced on April 10, 11, 12, 13 and 14 in some areas in Lapu-Lapu and Cordova. It will last from three to four hours daily.  (FREEMAN)