ZAMBOANGA CITY (Mindanao Examiner / Aug. 14, 2013) – Most parts of the Zamboanga City’s eastern coast have been rendered with no power at all after its 5 megavolt ampere transformer bogged down.
The Zamboanga City Electric Cooperative said it has found a replacement and is working on the installation of a 10 megavolt ampere transformer.
“Our 5 megavolt ampere transformer right now is not in operation as it got busted. But, we’re lucky enough because the replacement of 10 MVA has now arrived and presently being installed that’ll take 2 or 3 days to finish,” Engineer Mike Ramillano told the Mindanao Examiner.
Numerous complaints from villagers in Curuan, Vitali and Bunguiao have flooded state-owned dxMR-Radyo ng Bayan and expressing their utter disgust over the electric cooperative’s poor services in their areas.
“We have been agonizing for more than a week now, as we have been denied of power in our place. Worse, we don’t have drinking water in our homes, as our water system in the area depends on power to provide us our usual potable water. Without the electricity in our place, means no water also,” griped a group of residents in Bunguiao.
Ramillano, the dispatching officer from the main power plant in the village of Putik, informed electric consumers that the whole city populace will soon be relieved of energy woes as the coal-fired power plant in Misamis Oriental province which supplies 210 megawatts of electricity in Mindanao based is expected to resume operation by September following a routine maintenance this month.
Energy Secretary Carlos Jericho Petilla has ordered all power-producing firms in Mindanao to restore back to shape their bogged down generator sets or explore other sources of electrical power to help address the long crisis Mindanao is sugffering.
Zamboanga City is presently plagued with continuous power curtailments from two to four hours a day from its previous six to eight hours a day the past months.
The city’s required energy load daily is 90 megawatts and currently the local electric cooperative can only supply 62 megawatts the most, hence the need to impose the power curtailment, according to Jongjong Mendoza, another dispatching officer of the cooperative.
Zamcelco’s current power allocations are coming from state-owned PSALM with 47 megawatts; and the private Therma Marine Inc. with 13 megawatts, and from another private power firm Mapalad with 2 megawatts for a total of only 62 megawatts.
“We appeal to our member-consumers to bear with us,” the usual appeal from Zamcelco’s National Electrification Administration-designated Project Supervisor and Acting General Manager Sherwin Mañada.(Jun Feliciano)
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