LEYECO 2 to carry out rotational blackout

TACLOBAN CITY, July 14 --The Leyte 2 Electric Cooperative (LEYECO 2) will be implementing a rotational power interruption in its coverage area.

LEYECO 2 General Manager Fernan Paul Tan said the electric cooperative when energized Friday morning received 20 megawatt (MW) but the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NCGP) had reduced it later to 13MW.

LEYECO 2 needs an average electricity demand of 32MW while requires 43M on its peak hours. 

Before the reduction of transmitted power, Tan said that they will do a load shedding for all nine feeders in the coverage area of the electric cooperative within the city of Tacloban including the towns of Palo and Babatngon.

Each feeder will experience an average of two-hours with electricity once the schedules of rotational brownout is released.

“Right now our engineers are computing as to how many load will be needed to be evenly distributed,” said Tan.

Tan added, even through it is not in full capacity, they are thankful that the power is restored earlier than the promised July 19 date announced by the Department of Energy. 

The power outage had resulted to around PHP500, 000 to PHP700, 000 daily losses on income for the electric cooperative or 50-percent to 70-percent of their daily income.

Tan said that electric cooperatives in the region are hoping that the power will be restored immediately to avoid more economic losses which affect not only the electric cooperatives in the region but even businessmen and the transport sector.

Based on the estimates of the National Economic Development Authority, the region is losing a total of PHP105 million daily on energy subsector alone due to the power outage.

This loss may increase to PHP200 million to PHP500 million a day if the power will not be restored immediately.

In the presentation of the National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Council (NDRRMC) on Thursday to President Rodrigo Duterte they estimated that the total economic impact of the power outage is at PHP105 million and to swell to PHP2.1billion in 20 days. (Roel T. Amazona/PNA)