NGCP Probes 8-hour Power Outage in the Visayas

The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP)-Visayas is investigating the cause of power outage that hit Bohol, Leyte, Samar and some parts of Cebu for almost eight hours from 1:45 a.m. until 9:09 a.m. Thursday.

Betty Martinez, spokesperson of the NGCP-Visayas, said their company still has to come up with a comprehensive report as to the cause of the massive blackout.

“Initially, one of our transmission lines near Toledo City was isolated causing a low voltage. This line connects from Cebu to Leyte, which also sensed the low voltage situation and also tripped off,” Martinez said.

Martinez said the islands of Bohol, Leyte and Samar experienced total blackout while Cebu only sustained a partial blackout especially in the northern towns.

“Restoration activities immediately started in the affected islands. Investigation and analysis of the root cause of the loss of power is ongoing,” Martinez said.

Martinez said Cebu was first restored, followed by Leyte, Bohol then Samar.

As a result of the “low voltage,” Visayan Electric Company (Veco) spokesperson Theresa Sederiosa said they lost about 198 megawatts of their supply, causing blackouts especially in areas in the northern towns that are within their franchise area.

“But all areas within our franchise area that experienced blackout were all restored at 6:23 in the morning,” said Sederiosa.

She said they immediately worked on restoring power after sourcing power from plants within the island.

In a separate statement, KEPCO SPC Power Corp. in Naga City in southern Cebu, said their 200mw power plant tripped off at 1:45 a.m. due to a grid problem.

“KSPC engineers are already starting up the plant to continue generation of power for the Visayas grid,” the statement reads.

The Cebu Energy Development Corporation (CEDC) in Toledo City said they too were not able to feed power to the grid not because they have no supply but due to a grid problem.

The CEDC said their generation capacity is more than 300mw and this was not able to synchronize with the grid due to the grid problem. (PNA) CTB/EB