TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines — Power in several parts of Eastern Visayas was restored last Thursday, exactly a week after a 6.5 magnitude earthquake hit Leyte province.
The National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) said yesterday electricity was back in parts of Ormoc City and Kananga, Leyte after receiving power from Cebu.
NGCP also restored power in the Tacloban-Babatngon under the coverage of LEYECO II, Paranas-Calbayog lines, Bohol and Maasin in Southern Leyte.
NGCP successfully energized two transformers in its Ormoc substation late Thursday, allowing 135-megawatt capacity to partially power up affected areas.
The geothermal power plants operated by the Energy Development Corp. (EDC) are also set to deliver an additional 64 MW of electricity to Ormoc City where at least 1,000 families were affected by the earthquake.
President Duterte had ordered Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi and other top officials to prioritize the restoration of power in Leyte and the entire Eastern Visayas which suffered a blackout after the strong tremor struck last July 6.
NCGP officials announced during a press conference yesterday that the full power would be restored in the region by July 31.
Samar and Biliran have experience blackouts, resulting of millions of pesos in losses after operations of factories and business establishments stopped.
Power plants in Tongonan suffered major damage while NGCP facilities were also affected by the strong earthquake and aftershock.
Meanwhile, DOE Undersecretary Felix William Fuentebella expressed the agency’s frustration over failure to meet the 10-day timeline set to restore power in affected areas.
The NGCP had reported that over 100 MW from Cebu, Luzon and the geothermal plants of EDC could not be supplied to the provinces hit by the earthquake because of transformer problems at the Ormoc City substation.
Cusi said Eastern Visayas would have a more stable power supply next week once the NGCP completes the repair of all the transformers in Ormoc.
“We expect a total of 309 MW of available capacity by July 19.
These capacities can serve the total demand of electricity for the affected areas of Region VIII (Samar and Leyte provinces) and Bohol, which is at 291 MW,” Cusi added.
Fuentebella said the grid operator is working on a July 19 target to fix the critical transformer at the Ormoc substation to be able to restore 24/7 power to Leyte, Samar, Biliran and Bohol. – With Danessa Rivera