Marcos to NGCP: Solve Visayas power crisis

MANILA, Philippines — The National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) has been asked to immediately address the power crisis in parts of the Visayas.

President Marcos, who is in the United States for a five-day official visit, issued the directive in response to reports of 12-hour daily power outages in Panay, Guimaras and Negros since last week.

In a statement issued yesterday, the Presidential Communications Office said the President instructed the NGCP to review the reliability of each Visayas sub-grid and ”synchronize the protection relays of transmission, generation and distribution in the next two weeks to prevent blackouts.”

The NGCP was tasked to finish the Cebu-Negros-Panay backbone project and fasttrack the signing of an ancillary service procurement agreement to manage power fluctuations.

The project involves linking Negros and Cebu by laying an overhead line from the cities of Bacolod to San Carlos and Toledo through a submarine cable.

Marcos asked the NGCP to regularly update concerned government officials, distribution utilities and power generators on the status of the Visayas grid.

The provincial disaster risk reduction and management offices and provincial civil defense cluster convened yesterday in response to the directives of the President.

Marcos had earlier said the government would not resort to a takeover to solve the power crisis in the Visayas.

The President said the power outages were caused by problems in the distribution system and not in the supply of electricity.

Power interruptions were also caused by the warm weather, Marcos said.

The NGCP had cited “system disturbance” for the rotational power interruptions and voltage fluctuations in Western Visayas.

Michella Viscera, NGCP regional communications and public information officer in Western Visayas, said power stability in the region had improved on Monday with the synchronization of generators to the Visayas grid.

Residents of the islands of Guimaras, Panay and Negros have been up in arms over the power interruptions since Thursday last week.

Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas said unannounced power outages of more than five hours are ”causing havoc to the economy.”

“Businesses are affected and even government offices are closed due to extreme heat. The NGCP should explain why these blackuts are happening and what they are doing to prevent them,” Treñas said.

Over the weekend, Malacañang said it had “swiftly” acted to address the 20-hour daily power outages in Occidental Mindoro after the Occidental Mindoro Consolidated Power Corp. agreed to operate its three power plants. There were no reports of power interruptions in that province since Saturday, according to the National Electrification Administration. – Bella Cariaso, Jennifer Rendon