Negros Electric and Power Corp. assured that it is putting contingency measures in place to prevent a repeat of the massive power outages that hit Bacolod City last week.
Negros Power Chief Operations Officer Bailey Del Castillo issued the assurance at a press conference called by Bacolod Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez on Tuesday, August 27.
They are committed to upgrade the Central Negros power distribution system as soon as possible, del Castillo said.
He also assured that despite the P2 billion set to be spent by Negros Power for the rehabilitation of the power distribution system, they will continue to find ways to bring power rates down.
They will not increase their power distribution rates in the next three years, he assured.
The recent power outages that affected more than 48,000 registered consumers were caused when a 13-year-old 37.5 MegaVolt Amperes (MVA) transformer at the Alijis Substation suffered a fatal internal fault on August 21, Del Castillo said.
In the past years the transformer was experiencing overloading that shortened its life, he said.
Negros Power activated a 10 MVA mobile substation in Alijis on Monday that put an end to the rotational brownouts affecting mainly residents of barangays Alijis, Mansilingan, Felisa, and Handumanan, following the busting of the transformer, Del Castillo said.
An 18 MVA transformer being commissioned at the Alijis Substation is also expected to be operational by Sunday or Monday, he added.
They are also assembling a 37.5 MW transformer as a spare and bringing in a mobile substation as part of their contingency measures, Del Castillo said.
Out of the 11 substations in the Central Negros franchise area seven are 25 years old and in critical condition, he said.
Negros Power will focus on the most critical areas for the start of its rehabilitation work, he said.
They will present a specific timeline for their 5-year rehabilitation plan to the Bacolod Sangguniang Panlungsod next week, Del Castillo said.
Benitez said Negros Power is looking to invest from P2 billion to P2.5 billion for the rehabilitation of the Central Negros power distribution system.
The city government will keep a close watch on Negros Power’s commitment to modernize the power distribution system to ensure that it is implemented based on the timeline set, Benitez said.*