Damaged pole, truck mishap bring outages
MINALIN, Pampanga—Two separate incidents triggered brownouts in six Pampanga towns and Clark Freeport on Friday.
The National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) said the power outage in the franchise area of the power utility, Pampanga Electric Cooperative 3, was due to a damaged wooden pole in San Simon town, which caused a segment of the Mexico power line to trip at 1:15 a.m. Repairs by NGCP personnel restored electricity at 11:13 a.m.
The brownout in Clark, which occurred at 5:06 p.m., took place after a trailer truck pulled the power line of two transmission facilities in Barangay Sapang Balen in Mabalacat City near Subic-Clark-Tarlac Expressway.
The Clark Electric Development Corp. restored power at 7:10 p.m., the NGCP said.
Right-of-way (ROW) violations have been the common causes of power outages, according to lawyer Cynthia Alabanza, spokesperson of the transmission company, in an earlier report.
“Common ROW violations we encounter are the planting of trees within the ROW corridor, grass fires at or around our facilities, squatting and the putting up of structures under our transmission lines, and kite flying,” she said.
“All of these activities can disrupt the transmission of power and cause power outages. More importantly, these activities damage our lines and compromise the safety of the public,” she said.
The NGCP took over the operations and maintenance of transmission facilities in 2009. According to Alabanza, they inherited the bulk of ROW concerns from the state-owned National Transmission Corp., which used to operate the Luzon Grid. Tonette Orejas, Inquirer Central Luzon
