Brownouts hit Mandaue barangays

CEBU, Philippines - Five barangays in Mandaue City experienced a one-hour brownout yesterday starting 1:32 p.m. after some power plants were not generating any power.

Visayan Electric Company spokeswoman Ethel Natera said that affected areas were from Cabangcalan Substation which includes the barangays of Casuntingan, Bakilid, Maguikay, Tabok and Tingub.

Natera said power was restored at 2:18 p.m. on the same day.

She said that all customers who participated in the interruptible load during the period of the brownout were already using VECO power after its restoration.

The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (formerly National Transmission Corporation) in a press statement said the following power plants were not available:

*Cebu Thermal Power Plant I (Salcon Power Corporation) located in Naga, Cebu at 50 megawatts.

*Upper Mahiao (Leyte A) Geothermal Power Plant in Leyte at 30 megawatts.

*Power Barge 103 in Panay with a limited capacity of 10 megawatts. Power Barge 103 is scheduled for drydocking.

*Toledo Power Plant is only generating a capacity of 30 megawatts.

Owing to the inability of the said power plants and the limited generation of the Toledo Power Corporation, the NGCP's Regional Area Control Center implemented load reduction on the Cebu-Negros-Panay grid starting at 1:18 p.m. yesterday.

Belinda Sales-Canlas, NGCP regional corporate communications officer, said in a press statement that power supply started to normalize at 2:18 p.m. for VECO, 2:45 p.m. for the Negros grid and 2:53 p.m. for the Panay grid. – Mitchelle L. Palaubsanon/BRP (THE FREEMAN)