Volunteers to address power woes in DavOr

DAVAO CITY -- Davao Oriental’s intermittent power interruptions have become a perennial problem that the provincial government sought the creation of village-based volunteer groups to help clear damaged electric lines.

In a statement released Tuesday, the Provincial Capitol said it has ordered all 183 barangays in the province to form their respective Barangay Power Associations (BAPA).

The BAPA members will be tasked to ensure that power lines are free from vegetation and other obstructions that could potentially cause outages, the provincial government said.

The order, based on Resolution 16-20-07-2019 that was sponsored by Board Member Louis Rabat, directs all Barangay Councils to form their respective BAPAs to help the Davao Oriental Electric Cooperative (Doreco) in maintaining its power lines.

“This is in response to Davao Oriental citizens’ complaints about the recurrence of sudden power interruptions, which have caused damage (to) our appliances,” Rabat said in a Facebook post on Tuesday.

Despite the relative stable power supply, Rabat and other local officials noted that Davao Oriental still suffers from intermittent power interruptions, due to vegetation that comes in contact with and damage power lines.

Rabat’s resolution also called on Doreco to “regularly conduct clearing operations to continuously improve the delivery of electric service within its area of coverage.”

According to the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines, Mindanao has an average of 900MW operating margin at any given time compared to Visayas’ 317MW.