Romblon residents rally vs power outages

MANILA, Philippines - Fed up with the rotating blackouts lasting from one to four hours daily since 2012, residents of Tablas town in Romblon took to the streets last week to ask the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to speed up the approval of additional power capacity in the province.

Residents picketed in front of the Tablas Island Electric Cooperative (TIELCO), operator of the island’s power grid, to express their sentiments against the ERC.

 The agency is hearing a petition seeking for provisional authority that will allow TIELCO to supply diesel-generated power to Tablas.

Diesel-fired generators with combined capacity of 8.8 megawatts have been installed in Tablas but have yet to generate electricity pending ERC approval.

The generators are enough to supply the power requirement of the entire Tablas island, residents said.