LAOAG CITY, July 22 (PNA) –A 12-hour power outage caused by a single fallen tree that broke an insulator of the Northwind Power Corp.’s (NPC) power line along the Pasuquin national highway could have been avoided if only concerned authorities had proper coordination.
This was the findings of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan (SP or provincial board) during the July 20 committee hearing, inviting power distribution utilities such as the Ilocos Norte Electric Cooperative, National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) and Northwind to explain why it took more than 12 hours to restore the power line that affected end-consumers in the northern towns of the province during the recent typhoon Egay.
According to provincial board member Vicentito Lazo, a better coordination among power players is needed to ensure that same incident will happen again.
Based on the findings, it turned out that there was lack of coordination between INEC and Northwind to restore the power line.
According to INEC staff, they assisted in cutting the uprooted Eucalyptus tree while Northwind represented by Engr. Neil Jacobsen said they did their own way to restore its broken insulator, affecting the 69-KV line, which took them a longer time to fix compared to INEC.
Northwind operates the Bangui Bay Wind Project in Ilocos Norte, which currently has 20 turbines with a total generation capacity of 33 megawatts (MW) and which provides 40 percent of the power requirement of the province.
In view of this, Lazo said the SP was planning to pass a resolution to make known the sentiment of the provincial government that power utilities here have to foster better coordination in times of need.
“In times like this, they cannot be on their own. They have to collaborate with each other to avoid inconvenience and financial loses to businesses,” Lazo said.(PNA)