Upgrade facilities to prevent another blackout, power coop told

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BACOLOD CITY — Northern Negros Electric Cooperative (Noneco), which services nine towns and cities in northern Negros Occidental, must upgrade its facilities to prevent a similar blackout that put at least 50,000 households in the dark for six days, according to Mayor Javier Miguel Benitez of Victorias City.

He said the management of Noneco must upgrade and digitize its equipment as the power cooperative was still operating manually.

“This (Blackout) should not happen again,” he said, adding that several businesses in his city suffered losses after six days without power.

Small puto (rice cake) producers and some businesss in Manapla town were also affected, said its mayor, Manuel Escalante.

He added that the municipal government had to lend the puto producers a generator to run their grinders so they could resume production.

Noneco services the towns of Manapla, Toboso, E.B. Magalona, and Calatrava and the cities of Victorias, Cadiz, Sagay, Escalante, and San Carlos.

In the evening of Aug. 28, there was an explosion of the lightning arrester at Noneco’s 15 MVA substation in Bacayan, Canetown, Victorias, plunging Victorias, Manapla, and EB Magallona into darkness, which affected more than than 50,000 households.

Power was restored six days later on Sept. 4 after Noneco energized a 15-MVA transformer borrowed from the Central Negros Electric Cooperative at its Bacayan Substation.

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