Power back in Bohol, but supply still limited
TAGBILARAN CITY — The lights came back on in some towns in Bohol on Friday with power supplied from Leyte.
Areas serviced by the Bohol Electric Cooperative II (Boheco II) were energized after electricity flowed through the 138-kilovolt submarine cable between the two islands.
The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) said its 100 MVA transformer was also transmitted power from Cebu to Bohol.
About 21 towns in Boheco II’s franchise area had been without power since Thursday last week, when a magnitude 6.5 earthquake knocked out geothermal plants in Leyte.
Boheco II General Manager Eugene Tan said the city’s residents had been relying on portable generators sets for power.
But Tan said the electricity from Cebu was not enough and rotating brownouts were to continue.
Bohol relies heavily from power supplied from the geothermal plants in Leyte through two 138kv circuits. The power is passed to three distribution utilities: Boheco II, Bohol Light Company Inc. (BLCI) and Bohol Electric Cooperative I (Boheco I).
Betty Martinez, spokesperson of the NGCP for Central Visayas, confirmed via text message that power was being delivered to Boheco II. Martinez, stressed, however, that the power situation is far from ideal.
As of 12:54 p.m. Thursday the power supply from Cebu was about 5.7 megawatts (MW).
BLCI has been providing power to Tagbilaran using the Bohol Diesel Power Plant in Barangay Dampas.
Tagbilaran’s peak power demand is about 25 MW, but the diesel plant can only generate about 8 MW, BLCI said.
The power distributor has been rationing electricity since Friday last week to a number of feeder blocks at a time, said May Hope Arcenal, BLCI spokesperson.
The provincial government has been considering getting two power barges with a capacity of 32 MW each to add to the limited supply from Leyte and Cebu.
Bohol consumes about 79 to 84 MW of electricity a day, local officials said.
On Friday, the Bohol provincial board approved a resolution declaring the province under a state of calamity because of the continuing power shortage.
The board passed another resolution requesting President Duterte and concerned national agencies to help include the province in subsidizing the cost for the generation and distribution of power during emergencies to ease the burden on the consumers.