Brownouts hit more Cebu areas; 3rd red alert for Visayas grid

CEBU CITY, Philippines — More areas in Metro Cebu were added to a rotating power interruption schedule Monday, August 10, as the Visayas grid marked its third red alert this August.

The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) had placed the Visayas grid under red alert from 3 p.m. to 9 p.m., with a yellow alert to follow until 10 p.m.

As a result, power distributor Visayan Electric Company (Veco) placed additional areas in its franchise in its rotational brownout schedules.

Veco covers Cebu City, Mandaue City, Talisay City, Naga City, Consolacion, Liloan, Minglanilla, and San Fernando.

As of 4:15 p.m., Veco reported several areas placed on the earlier 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. rotation, including portions of Basak Pardo, Mambaling, Lahug, and Banilad in Cebu City, as well as parts of Mandaue, Talisay, and Consolacion.

These locations had already been restored and re-energized.

Other areas, however, remained without power past 4 p.m., among them portions of Camputhaw, Cebu Business Park, Luz, and Talamban in Cebu City, along with sections of Mandaue, Consolacion, and Liloan.

READ: Another red alert status for Visayas grid on August 8

Cebu City’s north, Mandaue

Veco also added more areas in their rotational brownout advisories which include parts of Apas, Lahug, and Luz in Cebu City, and Alang-Alang, Opao, and Umapad in Mandaue City.

The utility firm said the schedule could shift further depending on real-time grid conditions and subsequent NGCP directives, and urged customers to monitor official channels for updates.

Under red alert status, the power grid’s supply and reserves both can no longer meet demand. That’s why power distributors will implement rotational brownouts to prevent the grid system from collapsing entirely.

Mindanao factor

Monday’s red alert had been attributed to not only to the continued outages of some of the largest generating facilities in the Visayas but also limited power imports from Mindanao.

Earlier, NGCP confirmed that the Visayas-Mindanao transmission line had been constrained after extended outage of South Energy Corp.’s SEC 2 unit and a forced outage at GNPower Kauswagan’s GNPK 1.

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