SUMMARY
This is AI generated summarization, which may have errors. For context, always refer to the full article.
NEGROS OCCIDENTAL, Philippines – Iloilo City Mayor Jerry Treñas has called a meeting with power stakeholders to discuss effective approaches and generate remedies for the island’s power condition following the latest power outage in Western Visayas.
“The power situation should be addressed. Next week, I will be calling for a meeting with stakeholders and pushing for options already presented during the Zoom meeting with DOE. DOE, ERC, More Power, PEDC, PCPC, the business community, and the LGUs will be invited to attend a meeting so that we can discuss what can be done and done fast,” he said in a statement posted on his Facebook page on Friday night, March 1.
“This situation should not be allowed to go on. Our people are all affected,” he said.
The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) said the temporary power blackout that affected the island and portions of Negros Occidental is due to the tripping of one of the largest power plants, the Panay Energy Development Corporation (PEDC) 3, which contributes 150 megawatts of power.
NGCP said that three PEDC units, contributing 326 megawatts, shut down at 6:59 pm on Friday but gradually returned at around 8:30 pm on Friday.
The NGCP denied allegations that power outage was caused by a grassfire that occurred just about 15 meters away from its transmission tower.
“In response to unsubstantiated reports posted on People’s Domain and Negros Daily Bulletin, NGCP denies that the tripping of any of its facilities caused the current partial blackout in Negros and Panay,” the NGCP said in a statement.
“The line in the video was undamaged by the fire which was 15 meters away from the transmission tower. The transmission asset also did not trip or register a disturbance before the successive generator shutdowns,” it added.
It can be recalled that Western Visayas was hit by a region-wide power outage in the first week of 2024, which lasted for a couple of days and caused financial losses to local businesses in the region.
In Negros Occidental, political leaders are engaged towards achieving self-sufficiency in electricity supply by harnessing its power-generation capacity.
After accounting for an estimated power consumption of 440 megawatts and power generation of 667.6 megawatts, the island has a power surplus of 227.6 megawatts. Thus, leaders target to avoid future power outages on the island by giving priority to local customers before providing other locations. – Rappler.com
Add a comment
How does this make you feel?
There are no comments yet. Add your comment to start the conversation.