By Dominique Gabriel G. Bañaga

Separate power grid trips caused blackouts in Negros and Iloilo yesterday afternoon.

Based on a social media post by the Central Negros Electric Cooperative, Inc. (Ceneco), around 2:00 p.m., the 138-kilovolt National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) Mabinay transmission line was tripped.

Ceneco explained, the line supplies power to Ceneco, the Northern Negros Electric Cooperative, and the Negros Occidental Electric Cooperative.

Blackouts were also experienced in neighboring Negros Oriental.

As of press time, NGCP has yet to provide an explanation as to the cause of the trip.

Power was restored around 4:00 p.m.

Meanwhile, a separate blackout occurred in several areas of Iloilo City yesterday.

In a statement issued by the Panay Electric Company, Inc. (PECO), a sectionalizing cut-out near Barangay Taft North, in the city’s Mandurriao district, was damaged, causing a power interruption in PECO’s Feeder 18, which covers the residential areas of the said district.

The power outage was quickly followed by another interruption when PECO’s primary power supplier, Global Business Power, encountered a problem with its power plant’s circuit breaker 31, causing additional outages in the city’s  Jaro, City Proper, and Molo districts.

PECO’s line six and seven, which connects the Panay Energy Development Corporation coal power plant to four PECO substations and one Iloilo Electric Cooperative 1 substation in Pavia, also encountered a problem.

Power was restored in several of Iloilo’s affected districts by late afternoon after synchronizing with NGCP’s grid operations./DGB, WDJ