Veco apologizes for brownouts

CEBU, Philippines - The Visayan Electric Company Inc. has apologized to consumers inconvenienced by almost daily power outages this week due to power shortage.

Since Monday Veco has been decreasing its supply as per request from the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines to shed load of up to 39.8 megawatts everyday to address the power shortage in the Cebu- Negros-Panay grid.

Yesterday, certain areas in Metro Cebu again experienced brownouts from 10 a.m. which normalized around noon.

Veco started shutting down again power supplies in some areas at 1 p.m. which normalized around 7:30 p.m.

Veco spokeswoman Ethel Natera said that to lighten the burden of the consumers, they made sure that they will only experience an hour of power outage.

“Wala namo gidungan og pawong ang tanan. One hour sa usa ka area, after that ibalik na sad namo pero laing area na pud ang among palungon. Para di bug-at kaayo sa consumers,” Natera said.

She explained that NGCP has asked them to reduce their loads until the power supply normalizes once ongoing maintenance and repairs of various power plants are finished.

Natera said among the causes of shortage are the maintenance works of the NGCP’s Leyte-Luzon transmission line and the insufficient supply of independent power producers probably due to preventive maintenance also.

Areas that have experienced power interruptions were N. Bacalso Ave., Katipunan, Mambaling, South Hills and parts of Mandaue City in Looc, Cambaro, Centro, Alang-alang, Ibabao, Mantuyong, Guizo, Tipolo, Bakilid, Maguikay, Casuntingan and Banilad including Guadalupe and Labangon.

Natera said that eight consumers have joined their interruptible load program where they were able to shed at least 20 megawatts each shift.

The interruptible load program is a campaign of Veco enjoining consumers to voluntarily shut down their power and use their generators instead so their share may be distributed to other consumers needing it.

For an hour of outage, an average consumer loses about 960 kilowatt hours in consumption. Natera said mostly affected were the industrial consumers who kept on asking Veco when the situation will be back to normal because their production is greatly affected. — Jessica Ann R. Pareja/BRP    (FREEMAN NEWS)