A 10 MegaVolt Amperes (MVA) Mobile substation is arriving in Bacolod City on Saturday, August 24, to help augment power supply needs after a 37 MVA transformer at the Alijis Substation busted Wednesday night.
Negros Electric and Power Corp. personnel are working 24/7 to address the power problem that has affected 42,000 consumers covered by the Alijis feeders, the firm’s spokesman Jonathan Cabrera said Friday, August 23.
Multiple solutions are being undertaken to normalize the power situation in areas covered by the Alijis feeders as soon as possible, he said.
More Power, a sister firm of Negros Power, is sending its mobile substation from Iloilo, which will immediately be assembled at the Alijis substation when it arrives in Bacolod, Cabrera said.
The mobile substation is expected to start supplying power to the Alijis feeders by Tuesday, he said.
Negros Power is also installing a new 18 MVA power transformer to replace the one that busted at the Alijis substation, which could take about two weeks to complete, Cabrera said.
For now power supply to the Alijis feeders is being tapped from nearby substations, he said.
Negros Power is also installing a cable with a bigger capacity over 6 kilometers to connect the Murcia Feeder 1 to the Alijis Feeder, Cabrera said.
The cable that will transmit 15 megavolts of power to Alijis was expected to be operational by Friday night, August 23, he said.
All these will serve as immediate augmentation until a bigger capacity transformer to be purchased by Negros Power for Alijis arrives, he said.
The recent power outage that left thousands of Bacolod residents without electricity starkly highlights the failures of privatization, a Bayan Negros statement said Friday.
It is a preview of what consumers in Central Negros will have to face under the management of the Razon-owned Negros Power, it said.
A joint venture agreement has allowed Negros Power to take over the power distribution system of Central Negros Electric Cooperative (CENECO).
Cabrera said Negros Power is just in the transition phase of its takeover of CENECO’s operations.
The transition phase started this month, while Negros Power will begin its P2 billion rehabilitation and modernization of the distribution system when it fully takes over by September, he added.
The joint venture agreement was undertaken because CENECO did not have the resources to rehabilitate its aging equipment such as the transformer at the Alijis substation that busted and is now irreparable, he said.
The Negros Power 5-year rehabilitation and modernization will precisely be implemented to prevent what happened in Alijis, Cabrera said.
“What happened at the Alijis substation has proven what we have said from the start that the aging facilities of Ceneco are ticking bombs that could explode anytime,” he added.
MAYOR’S STATEMENT
The Bacolod City government is working closely with Negros Power to address the ongoing power outages, which have had a significant impact on the lives, livelihoods, and well-being of many consumers, Mayor Afredo Abelardo Benitez said in a statement issued Friday.
“We have reached out to NEPC officials, and they have assured us that they are making every effort to resolve the issues they inherited from the previous operator, CENECO”, he said.
Benitez said he has also requested PrimeWater to deploy generators at pumping stations and coordinate with their partners to ensure water rationing in affected areas.
For areas facing water shortages due to the power outage, residents can communicate with their barangay captains to arrange for water distribution, he said.*