By Tara Yap
Two widespread power outages in less than a 24-hour period are irritating residents of Western Visayas.
Areas affected of Wednesday’s power outage are the provinces of Aklan, Antique, Capiz, Guimaras, and Iloilo as well as Iloilo City.
Some of these areas still do not have electricity since 8:02 a.m. of October 30 when the 138-kilovolt (138-kv) submarine cable of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) between the islands of Panay and Negros tripped.
“We apologize for the inconvenience brought by the unscheduled power interruption,” said Michelle Visera, NGCP regional corporate communications officer.
The grid problem has particularly affected the operations of Panay Energy Development Corp. (PEDC), which generates power from its coal-fired power plant in Iloilo City.
The Wednesday massive outage was preceded by a separate massive outage that started late Tuesday afternoon.
As for the October 29 massive outage, Visera said the NGCP monitored a grid disturbance around 5:27 p.m. and had an automatic shut down. The system was gradually restored and most areas of Panay had electricity by 11 p.m. of Tuesday night.
The twin incidents have caused confusion among consumers who have blamed their local power distributors.