Following the partial system blackout that plunged Visayas into literal darkness during wee hours on Saturday, Energy Secretary Alfonso G. Cusi has instructed system operator National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) to immediately fix the cause of its line trippings and restore electricity services to consumers in the grid.
The energy department similarly called the attention of the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to “look into the matter” – primarily on scrutinizing the cause of the blackouts as well as the integrity of the transmission lines in withstanding weather conditions.
According to the DoE, NGCP conveyed that the heavy rains and lightning around midnight caused the cascade of transmission line tripping, triggering partial blackout in various parts of Visayas.
The affected transmission lines had been the 138-kilovolt (kV) Colon-Cebu lines 1, 2 and 3. The technical glitches caused power trippings at Colon-Quiot line around 11:56pm on Friday (August 20) affecting Cebu, Leyte, Samar and Bohol provinces.
“Initial finding points to a lightning strike caused the simultaneous tripping to the Colon-Cebu 138kV lines 1, 2 and 3; and Colon-Quilot 138kV line, which triggered the partial system blackout,” the DOE stressed.
As noted by the DOE, restoration of power supply had been ongoing and it was already partly reinstated by 5:00am on Saturday; although as of press time, consumers in Leyte were still grumbling over unresolved power interruptions in their area.
Given complaints by Visayas consumers, Cusi has asked the NGCP, who is responsible for system operations, to “provide immediate remedy to this system failure.”
The energy chief further ordered the transmission firm “to explain to the customers the reason for this, and to prevent this from happening again.”
In an early Saturday morning advisory to its customers, Visayan Electric Company (VECO) which is servicing end-users in Cebu, stated “We apologize for the inconvenience. The whole of the Visayan Electric franchise is experiencing total blackout.”
VECO added “our system operations team are still coordinating with NGCP as of this moment,” while apprising them that power restoration updates will be provided as they happen.
The DOE qualified that it had been initially informed of the Visayas blackouts via a message forwarded to the agency by the Visayas office of NGCP. The department also monitored the social media accounts of affected distribution utilities in the Visayas.