Since last year, what we had feared about CENECO’s aging and ailing facilities happened– the Alijis substation power transformer broke down and is irreparable. Negros Power, still waiting for their Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity (CPCN) from the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC), has not yet implemented their 5-year rehabilitation plan for Bacolod City and Central Negros. Despite that, they did everything they could to restore the area’s power because the outage affected more than 40,000 registered consumers connected to seven (7) Alijis feeders.
Alijis Feeders Powered Up at the Soonest Possible Time
In an extraordinary and concerted effort, Negros Electric and Power Corporation (Negros Power) restored electricity to the more than 40,000 consumers of the conked-out Alijis Substation in Bacolod City around 10 a.m. on Monday.
Negros Power fully energized and delivered electricity to the affected consumers through the 10 MegaVolt Ampreres (MVA) mobile substation that they brought to Alijis Substation from Iloilo City and the tie-ups to the feeders of the other substations.
According to the company’s press release, the mobile substation with 12 MegaWatts (MW) capacity is enough to power the 9.3MW demand load of Alijis Feeders 1 and 3.
The Alijis Feeders
Consumers connected to the Alijis Feeder 3 suffered for almost five (5) days of rotational brownouts due to a supply deficiency from the Murcia substation where it was temporarily tied up.
However, with the energization of the mobile substation, the power has returned to normal and the rotational brownouts implemented by Negros Power will stop.
Some feeders of the Alijis substation remain tied up to adjacent substations until Negros Power energizes the 18MVA new power transformer, which is scheduled on September 2.
Roel Z Castro, President and Chief Executive Officer of Negros Power, said that their decision to bring the 10MVA mobile station of MORE Power from Iloilo City is a significant risk on their part because it is the asset of their sister company. Still, they must take the risk because they prioritize restoring Bacolod City consumers’ electricity immediately.
“We are not happy about what has happened but are committed to making things better for the consumers. Just give us time, space, and the benefit of the doubt. We will prove ourselves in due time,” Castro said after the restoration of the electricity.
Going Beyond: Negros Power Provides Generator Sets to BACIWA Pumping Stations
The early demise of its 13-year-old power transformer last August 21 led to its early rehabilitation on top of six other substations owned by Central Negros Electric Cooperative (CENECO) previously, which are now also breaching the standard threshold or already reaching critical operational levels. They will prioritize their rehabilitation once Negros Power fully implements the Two Billion pesos 5-year development plan in Central Negros.
At the request of CENECO, beginning on August 1, Negros Power began deploying its personnel to augment the management and operations of the distribution system of CENECO which Negros Power had purchased.
Negros Power and CENECO entered into a Joint Venture Agreement primarily to augment the financial needs in the rehabilitation and modernization of the electric distribution assets and meet the power demand of the increasing number of consumers.
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