Transco sets weekend power interruption in Panay, Negros
Bad news for the fans of boxing champ Manny Pacquiao. There is a possibility that a power interruption will occur in the different parts of Panay and Negros Occidental on Sunday, March 16, the day of the title fight between Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez in Las Vegas, Nevada.
This, as the National Transmission Corp. (Transco) is set to conduct a three-day total preventive maintenance shutdown (PMS) of the Palinpinon Geothermal Power Plant (PGPP) in Valencia, Negros Oriental.
The PMS, which is done every five years, is scheduled from Mar 15 to 17, 2008. Transco, in an advisory, said it is expected that the PMS will result in power shortfalls and brownouts during peak hours.
The Transco advisory did not specify the exact hours on when the PMS will start. However, a top official of Transco assured that Sunday's shutdown will be made after the boxing fight of Pacquiao and Marquez
Live telecast of the boxing fight is expected to begin by 8 a.m. but on free television it usually reaches up to early afternoon.
In Iloilo City, portion of the power supply provided by the Panay Electric Company Inc. (PECO) comes from the National Power Corporation (Napocor). While, towns in the province of Iloilo and other parts of Panay rely on the power supply from different electric power cooperatives through the Napocor.
Simultaneous with the shutdown would be the dismantling of a lightning arrester and installation of a new 50-megavolt ampere (MVA) transformer at the Pondol cable terminal substation in Amlan, Negros Oriental.
Such is necessary for the completion of the Negros-Cebu Interconnection Uprating Project (CNUP).
The second round of brownouts slated March 20-22 will be caused by the shutdown of the Negros-Cebu submarine cable in preparation for the energization of the CNUP.
"All shutdown activities of Palinpinon 1 and the transmission lines as well as their associated facilities in Negros Oriental has been scheduled on a weekend and during the Holy Week to mitigate the impact of brownouts and minimize the inconvenience of power customers in Negros and Panay," the Transco advisory said.