Negros, Cebu and Panay islands may suffer occasional power interruption due to supply deficiency caused by the outage of power plants located in Leyte, according to the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines.
The NGCP in a media release Friday said they are still assessing the extent of the damage caused by the Magnitue 6.5 tremor that hit Leyte Thursday. They are currently conducting aerial and ground patrols to assess areas affected by the earthquake.
The earthquake caused island-wide blackouts in Samar, Bohol, Southern Leyte, and parts of Northern Leyte, NGCP said.
NGCP’s Cebu-Leyte submarine cable, and its Tabango Substation in Leyte continue to transmit power to LEYECO V, serving the municipalities of Tabango, San Isidro, and Villaba, NGCP added.
The NGCP has also mobilized six line gangs to temporarily restore the Ormoc-Togonan 138kV Line.
Another line gang was sent to Kananga Switchyard, owned by Energy Development Corp., to assist in restoration and to assess possible ways of extending power from the Tabango Substation to Ormoc Substation.
Meanwhile, the EDC is also assessing the extent of damage to its geothermal power plant in Leyte.
An initial statement from Richard Tantoco, EDC’s president and COO said “initial reports from our Leyte plant have all employees accounted for, with some reporting minor injuries”.
“We are aware or news reports of plant damage and are currently awaiting further assessments on the state of our physical assets to determine the exact nature of any damage to our plants.”
EDC, the country’s premier geothermal power leader, operates the Kananga and Tongonan, Ormoc power plants in Leyte with a combined total capacity of 701MW.
It also operates the Palipinon plants in Valencia, Negros Oriental that produces more than 200MW of geothermal power serving Negros and other parts of the Visayas. (Judy Flores Partlow)
