ILOILO City – The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) assured its readiness for the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections (BSKE) this Oct. 30.
Atty. Cynthia Alabanza, assistant vice president for the public relations department of NGCP, said all transmission lines are “up and running.”
“What we can tell you is that we will endeavor to make sure that delivery system is up and running,” Alabanza said during the agency’s POWER 101 conference.
Although only power distributors or distribution utilities (DUs) can guarantee that there will be no power outages, Alabanza said the NCGP’s maintenance crews are prepared for swift troubleshooting and restoration efforts once any problem arises with its delivery system.
The NGCP officer emphasized this, citing there are external factors causing power disruptions, such as animals getting caught up in electrical lines and posts or weather conditions.
“Like I said, so many things are beyond our control. The best we can do is work on the restoration timing,” Alabanza said.
Restoration will also depend on the nature and extent of the disturbance.
“Sometimes sa totoo lang minsan, it resolves itself; minsan on and off mawawala na whenever there are disturbances. If it’s something more damaging, like a tree outside the right-of-way, mas matagal,” she explained.
Acknowledging that information dissemination and timely public updates are critical, Alabanza assured the NGCP will release status reports every four hours on the day of the elections.
NGCP’s personnel, particularly on operations, will be “all alert,” she added.
Meanwhile, Lazaro de La Cruz Jr., operations and maintenance senior manager for District 4 Panay, said they have been proactively preparing for the Oct. 30 polls since last month. This included maintenance work and personnel training.
Beginning Oct. 28, a quick response team from the NCGP will conduct regular checks of all transmission lines.
“We will have a quick response team, and we will be checking and rechecking all transmission lines for possible defects that need to be corrected,” he said.
Also, substation engineers will be on a double shift for them to act promptly in case of interruptions or any trouble, and technical persons who do troubleshooting of high voltage equipment or transformers are on high alert status.
They will also be coordinating with the Philippine National Police for the security of their substations and transmission lines, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.
In a separate interview, Comelec Region 6 director, Atty. Dennis Ausan, said all their contingencies, including the power, are already in place.
“We have met before with the power sector, and they have also assured us we will not have problems as regards to the power aspect of doing the election. They have set contingency measures in the event there will be outages that could not be avoided,” he said yesterday.
Preparation is almost done, he said, as they are wrapping up the training of electoral boards and barangay board of canvassers.
The Joint Security Control Center had its final command conference on security preparations yesterday afternoon, he added.
“How I wish everything will be done smoothly and all within the confines of the rules and regulations we have set,” Ausan added. (With a report from the Philippine News Agency)/PN
