Visayas power lines disrupted by ‘Opong’

Severe Tropical Storm Opong has disrupted electricity in parts of Samar, Eastern Samar, and Negros Oriental, the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) reported on Friday.

The storm initially knocked out several major transmission lines, leaving thousands of customers without power.

In Northern Samar and Samar, the Calbayog-Allen 69kV line went offline at 1:43 AM, affecting the Northern Samar Electric Cooperative, Inc. and Samar I Electric Cooperative, Inc. (SAMELCO I).

The Calbayog-Bliss 69kV line followed at 2:31 AM, further disrupting SAMELCO I’s service. Eastern Samar’s Paranas-Quinapondan 69kV line went down at 12:51 AM, leaving the Eastern Samar Electric Cooperative, Inc. without electricity.

In Negros Oriental, the Amlan-Siaton 69kV line, which went offline at 6:35 AM and affected Negros Oriental II Electric Cooperative, Inc. (NORECO II) customers have since been restored as of 11:47 AM.

However, as of 1:00 PM, five transmission lines remain unavailable.

Along with the Calbayog-Allen, Calbayog-Bliss, and Paranas-Quinapondan lines, the Nabas-Siaton 69kV line serving Antique Electric Cooperative, Inc. and the Nabas-Sapian 69kV line serving Aklan Electric Cooperative, Inc. are also down.

NGCP said it is now conducting patrols to assess the impact of the storm and have begun restoration work in areas already accessible.

“Please note that loss of power may be caused by affected transmission facilities of NGCP or distribution facilities of local distribution utilities or electric cooperatives,” NGCP said.

“Specific cities and municipalities affected by the power interruptions are determined by concerned Distribution Utilities, unless the outage affects the entire franchise area,” it added.