By Francis Allan L. Angelo
The Mandurriao substation in Iloilo City is now overstressed and needs to be repaired immediately to avoid the risk of widespread blackouts due to cascading failures.
This was announced by MORE Power president Roel Castro, as he shared the fears of the firm’s technical team that if the problems were left unattended, the vulnerability of the substation to major blackouts would only worsen and cause irreparable damage to the facility.
“We have no time to lose; the repair is classified as urgent,” Castro said, “but, because we’d like to minimize the impact of a lengthy outage, we are scheduling it on a weekend.”
“We want our customers to understand that we are balancing all external factors with our desire to provide reliable energy and timely and accurate information on the outage as much as possible,” he added.
Mandurriao is home to major developments and malls such as Megaworld’s Iloilo Business Park, SM City Iloilo, Atria Park District, Gaisano City Center, among others, which are major consumers of electricity. It is also the location of major residential subdivisions.
In a separate statement, MORE Power spokesperson Jonathan Cabrera said the preventive maintenance was scheduled on Sunday, Oct 11, 2020, from 4 am to 5 pm.
He said the outage will affect the district of Mandurriao except Barangays Tabucan and San Rafael.
The scheduled brownout will also affect 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.
“A critical situation of this kind always takes long to resolve but rest assured our technical team will do everything to make this as minimally disruptive as possible and to try to finish the repair earlier than scheduled,” Cabrera said.
He advised residents and business establishments in affected areas to disconnect or shut off all sensitive electronics prior to the scheduled power interruption to prevent damage or loss of data.
PARTS OF AREVALO AFFECTED TOO
Cabrera announced that the outage will also affect the entire barangay of So-oc in Arevalo.
He said that the technical team of MORE Power will maximize the scheduled power interruption by doing parallel line maintenance works in the area, changing decrepit electric posts and cross arms along with the installation of automatic circuit reclosers.
Simultaneous to the repair work, Cabrera said, MORE Power will act on the request of the Iloilo Science and Technology University (ISAT-U) to relocate its 69kV line that passes through the school’s overpass along Burgos Street.
The additional repair work will trigger a 6-hour power outage affecting a portion serviced by La Paz Feeder 4 from 4 am and a 30-minute brownout in some areas covered by Jaro Feeders 1 and 2.
“It cannot be helped. Relocating this 69kV line also means relocating other lines or tying up some loads of Feeders 1 & 2 to Lapaz Feeders 2 and 3 so that the areas serviced by the Jaro Substation will not result to longer brownouts,” Cabrera explained.
“We hope our consumers understand that these must be done for us to serve them well. Fixing these lines will definitely improve the reliability of power distribution in those areas on a larger scale,” he added.
WELCOME DEVELOPMENT
Surprisingly, the announcement of a power interruption this weekend was met with cheers by officials and residents of Mandurriao, who said they are supportive of MORE Power’s efforts to repair the substation and implement correctives measures on the ageing and sagging distribution sagging lines in their area.
“Some of the wirings here are older than me, installed before I was born. If not replaced, they could cause fires. Houses near electric posts and made of light materials are especially at risk. A single spark can be disastrous,” Brgy. Captain Ramon Amoroso of Q. Abeto said.
Amoroso said Mandurriao residents had lobbied for years for PECO to replace the old and decaying electric facilities in their barangay, but their requests fell on deaf ears.
“We are actually glad that MORE Power is implementing this repair and rehabilitation of distribution facilities in our area even if it means we have to endure a whole day without electricity. This is still far better than having to suffer periodic outages due to an unmaintained substation,” he said.
Mandurriao resident Jessie Gustilo said, “Replacing the old wirings with new ones is long overdue, so I’m ok with that.”
Entrepreneur Letecia Parcon is unfazed by the outage, saying she is always prepared for blackouts. “I don’t see the repair as anything but good for our area.”
Punong Barangay Amoroso called on his constituents to prepare for the power interruption, urging them to “charge everything you need to advance. Rather than get dismayed, let us welcome the repair and maintenance work by MORE Power in our area because we will be the beneficiaries.”
The repair, maintenance, and upgrades being implemented by MORE Power are part of its modernization program to put in place a reliable substation, state-of-the-art control system, and cutting-edge devices and equipment in the city’s distribution system.
TOWARDS MODERNIZATION
Recently, MORE Power acquired additional devices and equipment, including thermal scanners, auto reclosers, manlift trucks, and a mobile sub-station to ensure a dependable and reliable supply of electricity for Iloilo City.
In an earlier interview, Castro said the 10MVA mobile sub-station, which will soon be operational in Mandurriao, particularly at the Iloilo Business Park, will be used as an alternative power source at the Megaworld area to free up the Mandurriao sub-station, whose capacity is now at the maximum level.
He said the safe loading for the sub-station should only be at about 60% to 70% but currently the 25-30MVA sub-station 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,” he explained.
