City survives 'longest' power blackout
Highly-urbanized City of Iloilo endured yesterday what stands to be the longest power interruption minus a storm signal, aftermath of a typhoon or aftershock of a natural calamity and disaster.
This, as all six districts here suffered at least 12 hours of straight full power black-out that hampered local businesses and affected private homes. Local radio stations were bombarded with calls from irate residents as questions remained unanswered as to why there was no power and more importantly, why there was no public advisory made.
The black-out also came in the most rotten of timing, angry callers similarly expressed, with tourists at its highest in the city as the Lenten break ended.
Amanda Garcia of Panay Electric Company (PECO) managed to explain to various radio stations that it is not PECO's fault. What it was, she explained, was the annual preventive maintenance done by Panay Power Corporation (PPC).
However, no official word came from PPC's side.
Reports gathered by The News Today (TNT) disclosed that the earlier plan for power resumption was 6 in the morning however there was engine trouble anew when the initial operation was done.
Power started to be restored in the city proper about 1 p.m. while the rest of the districts waited for normalcy hours thereafter.
Most of the affected residents complained not about the black-out per se but the lack of advisory that caught most off-guard.
The power blackout started around 12:45 in the morning yesterday. Business establishments with generators managed to operate normally while those that depend on power supplied by PECO suffered.
People had to cook perishable goods from their refrigerators as they don't have idea when the power resumes.
Others stayed at the malls, which are powered by their own generators, while power was still out.
Fortunately, there was no public office yesterday as April 9 was a public holiday.
The sudden power blackout came at the heels of the planned interconnection between PECO and the newly-arrived Power Barge 101 of the National Power Corporation (NPC).
PB 101 is a 32-megawatt (MW) Power Barge that can connect and supply power to the Cebu-Negros-Panay grid within five days to beef up the dependable capacities in Panay. The barge's four units can generate as much as 24 MW.
The power barge, which came from Cebu, arrived in Iloilo City last March 16, 2007 but the interconnection with PECO has yet to be finalized.
Earlier, PECO wants to have a non-firm agreement with NPC. The deal was not consummated. In a non-firm agreement, PECO will just buy power from NPC during peak hours.
NPC's manager for corporate communication division Dennis Gana said they can not oblige PECO to ink an agreement with them. However, he said, PECO has the responsibility to look for alternative power source to meet the needs of its consumers to avoid a scenario like yesterday.
Presently, PECO gets power only from PPC.