Rotating power outages hit Metro Cebu

CEBU CITY, Philippines – Metro Cebu residents should expect rotating power outages due to the shortfall on Friday, February 20, of at least 146 megawatts (MW), power utility Visayan Electric Company (Veco) said.

The rotational power outages started 9 am Friday.

So far, areas affected in Friday’s power shortage included portions of Cebu City, Mandaue City, and the towns of Consolacion and Liloan.

The shortfall was due to the problems experienced by the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP), where Veco buys its electricity.

The brownouts within Veco’s franchise area, mostly in the urban centers of Cebu province, will last for about one to two hours.

“Veco is currently coordinating with its Interruptible Load Program (ILP) participants to augment its supply,” Veco said in its advisory.

Veco’s ILP program taps huge electricity consumers like malls and factories to use their own generators for a given period in a bid to minimize the shortfall.

“We’re calling on all consumers to conserve power whenever possible,” Veco said.

A two-hour blackout in Cebu province was experienced dawn of Thursday, February 19. It was caused by problems in Leyte power plants that supply NGCP, which in turn, powers up the Cebu grid.

A power shortage of 198MW was experienced Thursday, said Risa Coloyan, Veco’s corporate communications officer. – Rappler.com