Leyte quake aftermath: Visayas power reserve plummets

The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) on Friday placed the Visayas grid under yellow alert after the reserve power supply plummeted following the 6.5-magnitude earthquake that rocked Leyte Thursday afternoon.

“In the afternoon and evening, we will be issuing yellow alert because the reserve [power supply] level is low,” said NGCP assistant chief technical officer Santiago Dimaliwat IV in a press briefing.

READ: 6.5-magnitude quake rocks Visayas

Three High Voltage Direct Current facilities in Ormoc and a substation in Samar have been damaged, according to NGCP’s initial report, resulting in power interruptions in the provinces of Leyte, Southern Leyte, Biliran, Western Samar, Northern Samar, Eastern Samar and Bohol island.

Power demands for the whole Visayas in the afternoon and evening are at 1,532 megawatts (MW) and 1,493 megawatts, respectively.

The NGCP’s reserve power supply is only at 135 megawatts in the afternoon and only 65 megawatts in the evening, said NGCP spokesperson Cynthia Alabaza.

A yellow alert means that power reserves have plummeted below the minimum of 647 MW.

The provinces of Leyte, Southern Leyte, Samar, and the island of Bohol are suffering from total loss of electricity when the region was hit by a strong 6.5 magnitude earthquake.

The NGCP could not yet give a timeline as to the restoration of the power service in Visayas. Daphne Yann P. Galvez, INQUIRER.net trainee / JPV