Brownouts plague Naga City, 5 other CamSur towns

NAGA CITY, Philippines—Residents of this city and at least five other towns served by the Camarines Sur II Electric Cooperative (Casureco II) have been told to brace themselves for hour-long daily brownouts for at least the next three months.

The rotated brownouts have to be resorted to because Casureco II’s 20-megavolt amperes (MVA) feeder station, which regulates power distribution from the National Grid Corp, has been malfunctioning and needs repair, according to Emmanuel Rojo, the spokesperson of Casureco II.

He said the feeder station, which services Naga City and the towns of Pili, Calabanga, Tinambac, Milaor and Minalabac, was still operating but no longer at full capacity, creating a power shortage of 8 MVA that causes intermittent brownouts in its service area.

Rojo said it would take some three months to repair the 15-year-old feeder station and thus, during this period, Casureco II would need to regulate the distribution of power through power shedding, or scheduled brownouts.