Unscheduled brownout hits Oro

A big portion of Mindanao including Cagayan de Oro City was hit by an unscheduled and unannounced power outage on Tuesday, November 8, due to a power supply trip off of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP).

In an advisory, the NGCP said

it monitored a grid disturbance around 10:38 a.m., which resulted to loss of power affecting the Northwestern and Northeastern Mindanao.

“Initial investigation reports that intentional toppling of vegetation under the Baloi-Agus 2 transmission line resulted in the loss of power over vast areas in Northeastern and Northwestern Mindanao” the statement from NGCP said. As of press time NGCP has completed the restoration of all transmission services and are now operating under normal conditions, except for the Agus 2 - Baloi line which is still being cleared.

Apart from Cagayan de Oro City, other areas affected include Misamis Oriental, Iligan City, Butuan, Pagadian, Bukidnon, Davao, among others.

Marilyn Chavez, Cepalco’s assistant vice president and head of customer and community relations department, said around 90 percent of the service area of the Cagayan Electric Power & Light Company Inc. (Cepalco) was affected of the power interruption.

“Naay uban areas nga wala napagngan sa kuryente. Ato pang gipangayo ang explanation sa NGCP kung unsa ang cause,’ Chavez said.

Chavez said the restoration of power supply varies due to voltage normalization.

“Ang uban after 2 hours nakabalik na ang kuryente ang uban wala pa kay i-normalize pa man ang voltage ana,” she added.

In its advisory NGCP urges all stakeholders to guard its lines and respect right-of-way (ROW) clearances. Any suspicious activity may be reported to their TIPNGCP Hotline. (0917.847.6427 or 0918.847.6427)