Negros Power and Electric Corp. has provided generators to sustain water supply and assured that power in areas served by the Alijis Substation in Bacolod City will normalize by Tuesday, August 27.
“By Monday or Tuesday, this will normalize in the sense that all of those 47,000 consumers affected who are going on a Manual Load Dropping, dapat on Tuesday wala na yan (by Tuesday that should be over),” Negros Power President and CEO Roel Castro said at a press conference Saturday night.
The 13-year-old 37 MegaVolt Amperes (MVA) transformer at the Alijis Substation busted on August 21 and all the seven feeders delivering power to 47,000 consumers were affected, Castro said.
The transformer was totally damaged, so they linked the seven Alijis feeders to the other substations to temporarily deliver power to the affected areas, which caused rotational brownouts, he added.
As of Saturday a 10 MVA Mobile substation from Iloilo and the 18MVA new power transformer were stationed and installed at the compound of the Alijis substation, he said.
Preparations are being conducted, electrical testing and connections both from the 69KV transmission line of the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines and to the 3-phase automatic circuit reclosers to the Alijis feeder 3 and other feeders are underway, he added.
It is expected to be finished by Monday evening, and the required load of power will be supplied to energize all the consumers of the Alijis substation so that no more rotational brownouts will be needed, he said.
Alijis substation holds significant importance, and it is, in fact, part of the substations that are programmed for rehabilitation under the 5-year rehabilitation plan of Negros Power, Castro said.
“We are doing something out of the ordinary, and our priority is to restore the power to all the consumers. I know the consumers will not be satisfied with this, but please give us the benefit of the doubt,” Castro said.
GENERATORS FOR WATER
To alleviate the inconveniences faced by the consumers affected by the deficiency of power at Alijis Substation, Negros Power also provided three generator sets to the pumping stations of the Bacolod City Water District.
These specific pumping stations, connected to Alijis Feeder 3, lacked power generator sets essential for sustaining water supply during rotational brownouts, Negros Power spokesman Jonathan Cabrera said.
MAYOR’S STATEMENT
“We acknowledge the recent updates from Negros Power regarding their efforts to normalize the power supply to the Alijis substation,” Bacolod Mayor Alfredo Abelardo Benitez said in a press statement Saturday.
“Negros Power has committed to rehabilitating and upgrading our power infrastructure – a crucial step toward ensuring the reliable delivery of electricity to Bacolod City,” he said.
“The Local Government Unit (LGU) of Bacolod City will continue working closely with Negros Power to implement immediate solutions and ensure long-term infrastructure improvements for the benefit of all our residents, “Benitez added.
“Rest assured, the city government is doing everything within its capacity to expedite the resolution of these issues and ensure a more reliable power supply for everyone”, he said.*