BACOLOD CITY – The Northern Negros Electric Cooperative (Noneco) fully restored electricity in three areas in Negros Occidental on Sunday night, September 3, after a five-day blackout due to the tripping of their 15 MVA power transformer at Victorias City substation.
The power interruption since Tuesday, August 29, affected the municipality of E.B. Magalona, Victorias City, and a portion of Manapla town.
In an advisory on Sunday night, Noneco said that the 15 MVA power transformer was successfully energized at 7:20 p.m.
This power transformer stationed at the CyberCentre here was loaned by Noneco from Ceneco to provide a remedy for the power crisis in the third district of the province. It arrived at Noneco Bacayan, Victorias substation on Saturday night, September 2.
Victorias City Mayor Javi Benitez said the transformer successfully cleared all nine required tests – oil dielectric strength, TTR (primary to secondary), insulation resistance and P.I., winding resistance, overall insulation power factor, bushing hot collar, excitation current, impedance, and grounding (earth) resistance.
Noneco submitted the test results to the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) for approval, after which the NGCP conducted tripping simulations to confirm that all installed protections are operational, Benitez said.
Upon approval, Noneco began the commissioning and electrification process, he added.
Prior to the full power restoration, Noneco constructed lines to interconnect with Ceneco's to partially restore the power in E.B. Magalona town on Saturday.
However, power interruptions were still reported over the weekend as Noneco is still balancing the power load to prevent overloading of power lines with Ceneco.
A one-hour power outage was reported on Monday covering the three areas to facilitate the correction of some technical issues at the 15 MVA Victorias substation, according to Noneco.
“It has been a crazy week, to say the least, but we still have a lot to discuss. To everyone who worked on this, we made it,” Benitez said in a Facebook post.