4-hour brownout hits Legazpi City, 3 neighboring towns in Albay

LEGAZPI CITY, Philippines—A four-hour brownout hit this city and the neighboring towns of Daraga, Camalig and Manito after a power line of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) broke down, a ranking official of the Albay Electric Cooperative (Aleco) said Wednesday.

The power brownout occurred at around 6:45 p.m. Tuesday when the  NGCP power line connecting to Aleco’s Bitano sub-station in this city broke down, rendering the four-hour power interruption, said Rey Reverente, Aleco acting general manager.

Reverente, in a phone interview, said affected by the power trip off was the Bitano Sub-station with a 69 Kilovolt Amperes Transformer that provides electricity to some 70,000 households in this city and the towns of Daraga, Camalig and Manito.

He said technical personnel from the NGCP and assisted by Aleco power linemen rushed to the Bitano site to do repair work on the damaged power line connection.

NGCP-Aleco technical personnel took four hours to repair the damaged connection caused by what they termed as a power “air break.” Power was restored at 10:45 p.m. Tuesday.

Officials in the NGCP based in Daraga, however, could not explain the occurrence of the so-called power “air break” for lack of authority to release information. They have referred the Inquirer to their Public Affairs Office in Manila.

Another power interruption occurred at 1:30 a.m. Wednesday but power was restored 30 minutes later.

The four-hour brownout caught consumers by surprise while they were watching primetime TV newscast and others having dinner.

Earlier on August 30, a two-hour brownout also hit this city and the neighboring town of Daraga after NGCP had its regular maintenance work at its power load transformer covering the Daraga-Sorsogon 69 KVA transformer.

The brownout sent thousands of electricity consumers, especially the business establishments, into thinking that the NGCP was carrying out a power cut off to Albay due to failure of the Aleco to settle its P4-billion outstanding account with several power providers.