BY GILBERT P. BAYORAN
An unscheduled blackout hit portions of Negros Occidental and the whole Panay island during the weekend.
In a statement, the Central Negros Electric Cooperative (CENECO) reported that power went out at about 12:57am on October 15, that was caused by a leakage in the distribution line insulator at its Reclamation Feeder No. 5 (RF5).
An auto-trip system should have been activated, however, due to still unknown reasons, the auto-trip system failed to activate at the feeder’s recloser, thus causing an explosion and fire at the feeder located in Barangay 35, Bacolod City.
The incident was seen and video was taken by several individuals at the Bacolod Baywalk area in neighboring BREDCO port.
The fire then affected the other feeder lines of CENECO, which ultimately caused a power outage in Bacolod City.
The Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) said that no one was hurt in the blaze at RF5, although the damage was pegged at around P30,000.
The fire at CENECO’s RF5 also caused Panay’s transmission grid to trip, ultimately causing the blackout.
The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP), CENECO, the Northern Negros Electric Cooperative (NONECO), Negros Occidental Electric Cooperative (NOCECO), and the Panay sub- grid were affected by the blackout.
NGCP announced that the power loss was due to isolation of NGCP’s Bacolod-Kabankalan and Bacolod-Cadiz 138kV lines.
Power in the affected areas were restored Saturday afternoon.
Some northern Negros towns and cities under the coverage of NONECO also experienced a blackout that lasted more than one hour on October 16.*
