The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) has partly restored its power transmission services to Leyte, Samar, and Cebu following the onslaught of Typhoon Odette in Visayas and Mindanao.
NGCP said it implemented an alternative power restoration scheme on Sunday night, with the synchronization of Unit 1 of Energy Development Corporation’s Leyte A Malitbog geothermal power plant with its neighboring Tongonan geothermal facility. Both plants extend power to the Cebu subgrid.
As a result, transmission services were restored to nine power distributors across the three islands, including the Visayan Electric Company, the country’s second largest distribution utility that serves most of Metro Cebu. NGCP clarified, though, that while transmission services have been extended through an interim scheme, the restoration of damaged 69-kilovolt (kV) lines are still ongoing.
Power went out across Leyte and Samar in particular on Friday night, as their backbone lines were unavailable.
The grid operator said it is still assessing the extent of damage in other parts of Leyte, Negros, and Bohol are still ongoing. As of late Sunday afternoon, a total of 12 towers and 462 transmission structures were found damaged.
Meanwhile, NGCP aims to restore power for five electric cooperatives in the Surigao and Agusan provinces by Christmas Day. Odette first made landfall in Siargao Island, Surigao Del Norte.
Three 138kV backbone lines in Cebu are set for energization on December 21 and 22, while the 138kV backbone line serving Leyte is targeted for restoration on Monday. Restoration of these backbone lines will provide the interim power restoration highway in the said provinces.
NGCP has also appealed for the cooperation of all landowners in the ongoing restoration activities. This comes as line personnel working on the Kabankalan-Sipalay 69kV Line serving the Negros Occidental Electric Cooperative are being hampered from repairing broken and leaning poles by a landowner barring access to his property.
As per NGCP’s 11AM update on Monday, Bohol is the only entire island province in the Visayas Grid wherein power has to be restored. Other than Samar, Leyte, and Cebu, transmission has partly resumed in Negros, Surigao, and Agusan provinces.