By Francis Allan L. Angelo
MORE Electric and Power Corp., the power distribution utility in Iloilo City, heaved a sigh of relief after completing the fifth and last rehabilitation works on its substations.
The preventive maintenance works on the Mandurriao substation began 4 am Sunday and was finished 4 pm.
The rehabilitation work caused outages in Mandurriao except Barangays Tabucan and San Rafael.
The scheduled brownout also affected portions of Jaro from Magsaysay Road to Jalandoni St. up to the Iloilo Sports Complex; from Jalandoni St. going to Corner E. Lopez St. all the way to corner Jaro Plaza; and from Seminario St. to Cuartero St. up to Central Philippine University.
Apart from the Mandurriao substation works, the outage also affected LaPaz feeder 4 in LaPaz district to give way to the request of Iloilo Science and Technology University (ISAT-U) to relocate the 69-kV lines so it can finish the construction of the pedestrian overpass across Burgos Street, LaPaz.
Since the ISAT-U works involved Line 4 of the 69-kV lines, which supplies electricity to Mandurriao and Jaro Substations, a brownout also affected Jaro Feeders 1 and 2 to tie up or transfer some of the load of LaPaz Feeders 2 and 3 and avoid longer brownouts in areas under Jaro Substation.
Power supply to Mandurriao was eventually restored to Mandurriao at around 7 pm Sunday due to a misalignment in the Disconnect Switch of the 69kv sub-transmission line at Brgy. Baldoza, LaPaz.
According to MORE Power, the line supplies electricity to Mandurriao and Jaro substations.
While the preventive maintenance works in Mandurriao substation, which was the cause of the 13-hour outage, was completed at around 4 pm, the misalignment made it impossible to restore power supply.
The solve the problem, MORE Power’s technical team put up a bypass wire which took about two hours to complete.
Nevertheless, MORE Power spokesperson Jonathan Cabrera said they are relieved that the rehabilitation of all five substations in the city was completed.
“It will ensure that our substations will run smoothly for years and prevent more massive and prolonged outages. We apologize to our consumers for the inconvenience that these activities caused them. If there was only a way to prevent the 13-hour brownouts, we could have resorted to such actions. But the substations, which are overstressed, must undergo much needed preventive maintenance works to prevent more serious problems,” Cabrera said.
Apart from the substation works, MORE Power also replaced dilapidated poles and crossarms and corrected sagging lines.
The next major work MORE Power will undertake is the commissioning of the 10MVA mobile sub-station at the Iloilo Business Park in Mandurriao.
It will be used as an alternative power source at the Megaworld area to free up the Mandurriao substation, whose capacity is now at the maximum level.
MORE Power president and CEO Roel Castro said the safe loading for the substation should only be at about 60% to 70%, but the 25-30MVA Mandurriao substation is functioning at a 95-100% loading capacity.
“So basically it is already operating on a high risk level, which may soon trigger a breakdown. It is vital that we free up the Mandurriao sub-station. This 10MVA mobile sub-station will be used to cater primarily to the load requirements of the Megaworld area and put into loop the Mandurriao and Molo sub-stations,” Castro explained.
