ILOILO – Minimizing power outages in its service area last year was an achievement, according to Iloilo Electric Cooperative, Inc. (ILECO) 2.
From Jan. 1 to Nov. 30, 2019 brownouts stretched for an accumulated 1.79 hours only, said Una Padilla, technical manager of ILECO 2.
This was way shorter than the accumulated 5.34 hours of brownouts in 2018, stressed Padilla.
Most of the causes of the power failures were wayward trucks tripping power cables and overloaded transformers.
According to Padilla, ILECO 2 has 121,524 member-consumers from the component city of Passi and the towns of Pototan, Mina, Dingle, Dueñas, San Enrique, Bingawan, Calinog, Lambunao, Badiangan, Janiuay, New Lucena, Zarraga, Barotac Nuevo, and Dumangas.
On the other hand, according to Padilla, power failures mostly caused by the tripping off of the submarine cables of the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) reached 106.45 hours – higher than 2018’s accumulated 38.15 hours of power interruption due to NGCP cable trip-offs.
Of the NGCP-caused brownouts, Padilla said the longest was on Oct. 29 and 30, 2019 and also covered – aside from Iloilo – the provinces of Aklan, Antique, Capiz, Guimaras, and Iloilo City.
According to Padilla, one way ILECO 2 mitigated brownouts was the clearing of vegetation invading power lines and electricity poles.
“Naka-massive clearing kita,” he said.
Padilla also said ILECO 2 troubleshooting teams improved their response time in 2019./PN
