ILOILO CITY—The city’s new power distributing firm assured residents of a stable supply of electricity and fewer emergency repairs after completing a major maintenance work on all of Iloilo’s five power substations.
In a statement, More Power Electric Corp. (More Power) also explained the cause of the two-hour extension of a scheduled 13-hour brownout in Mandurriao District during preventive maintenance of a substation on Sunday (Oct. 11).
The statement said despite its efforts, More had to extend the outage for another two hours because of the “misalignment” of a “disconnect switch of the 69 kilovolt sub transmission line in Lapaz.” The problem “required the installation of an air break switch bypass wire.”
The extended brownout had drawn complaints from consumers in the area.
The company said the preventive maintenance work was essential to prevent prolonged and unscheduled power outages.
The maintenance work at Mandurriao substation was the “fifth and last round” of maintenance work which “we have been instituting to repair all ageing substations and enhance their performance and have them run at maximum efficiency,” said the statement.
“Comprehensive preventive maintenance work is one of the cornerstones of our strategy to provide Ilonggos access to affordable, reliable, and sustainable energy,” it said.
The company said it also installed additional feeder meters at the substations to monitor the load being passed on to every meter and the distribution transformers.
“With continual use, all machines begin to deteriorate in functionality, making them less efficient and less reliable,” the statement said.
“We want everyone to understand that preventive maintenance work is critical in ensuring our substations’ optimal performance in the long term,” it said.
The Supreme Court earlier this month upheld the constitutionality of provisions of Republic Act 11212 which granted a 25-year franchise to More Power, a company owned by tycoon Enrique Razon, and authority to expropriate distribution assets of Panay Electric Company (Peco).
The Iloilo Regional Trial Court will still determine the amount for just compensation of all of Peco’s assets valued at least P481,842,450.
Peco has been operating for 96 years but its franchise expired on Jan. 18, 2019. Congress did not renew its franchise but granted a 25-year-old franchise to More Power.