Power grid firm in Bicol ready with contingency steps for May 13 polls

LEGAZPI CITY — The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) in Bicol announced on Friday that contingency measures were in place to check and address any grid disturbances that could happen on election day.

The plan includes the setting up of a Command Center that would be activated on Friday until May 16. The Command Center would operate on a 24/7, said Nilda Somera, NGCP Regional Communication and Public Affairs Officer.

Somera said the agency would deploy maintenance and troubleshooting crew that are on standby to address and secure power transmission operations and facilities during this year’s midterm national and local elections.

The NGCP’s critical units, such as System Operations (SO) and Operations and Maintenance (O&M) would remain fully staffed and would be on-duty for 24 hours during the duration of the elections, she said.

Line crews, engineers, pilots, maintenance and testing and other technical personnel were strategically positioned in the firm’s substations to respond to line trippings should these occur, Somera said.

Under the contingency plan, NGCP has organized a Power Task Force Election, a special team formed to ensure the security and reliability of various transmission networks in the six Bicol provinces during the election.

She said that as early as March this year, the Task Force had been activated to ensure that no power transmission glitches would occur on election day. (Editor: Leti Z. Boniol)