KIDAPAWAN CITY, (PNA) –Sectional brownouts currently carried out in North Cotabato province have caused big losses to commerce and operations of local government units.
For one, Mayor Joseph Evangelista here said daily power outages lasting for six hours have caused delays in transactions of various offices of the city government, especially the finance division.
Evangelista earlier wrote a letter to the Sangguniang Panlungsod (SP), through the Committee on Energy, requesting that he be given authority to purchase four generator sets for the city government.
The council approved the request with the procurement set to take place early next year.
Prior to the approval, the SP has invited Cotelco general manager Godofredo Homez to shed light on the power situation of North Cotabato.
Homez told the council the load curtailment is being imposed by the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines, based on the available capacity of the existing hydroelectric, geothermal, coal-fired, and diesel-fed power plants located in several areas in Mindanao.
Homez said the Cotelco has no choice but to abide by the schedule to avoid penalty.