Electricity in 1.6M households restored — NEA

PHOTO: Official website of NEA / nea.gov.ph

MANILA. Philippines – The National Electrification Administration (NEA) on Tuesday said 1.6 million households have already reconnected to electricity services following the impacts of Severe Tropical Storm Kristine (international name Trami) to energy infrastructure.

In an interview with Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon, NEA Administrator Antonio Almeda said 2.1 million connections across 12 regions were affected by the typhoon last week, with electric cooperatives (ECs) working to immediately restore power services in these areas.

“Based on our data, a total of 2.1 million connections were affected by [STS] Kristine [covering] the 12 regions affected,” Almeda said.

“And we are only down to 500,000 household connections that are waiting for restoration,” he added.

READ: Agricultural damage due to Kristine climbs to P3.11B

Almeda said the NEA and its member ECs have been coordinating with the Philippine Rural Electric Cooperative Association (Philreca) to help in power restoration efforts in areas impacted by “Kristine.”

Restoration efforts are ongoing in franchise areas of Pangasinan I Electric Cooperative (Panelco I); Batangas I Electric Cooperative (Batelec I), covering Nasugbu and Calatagan; Albay Electric Cooperative; Camarines Sur II Electric Cooperative (Casureco II), servicing Naga; and Casureco III, covering Iriga.

“As we speak right now, in the areas of Pangasinan – 168 out of the 192 barangays were already energized. In Batangas in Batelec I, 76.2 percent of the connections were energized also. In Casureco II in the areas of Naga, 76 percent of the household connections were energized although 60 percent of Naga are energized. Seven barangays are still flooded and only large vehicles are allowed to pass,” he added.

“In CASURECO III in the areas of Iriga in CamSur, energization rate is still low at 54 percent approximately and manual shutdown is still being implemented in the flooded areas. In Albay, 62 percent of the household connections were already energized and we expect that the Task Force Kapatiran, meaning to say the augmentation implemented by the other coops will help fast track the full restoration,” the NEA official continued.

He said the NEA made sure that the critical services, including hospitals and the evacuation centers are energized, and that the ports in Matnog and in Allen are energized to ensure uninterruptible flow of goods.

Almeda added that First Catanduanes Electric Cooperative has reached re-energization of 92 percent, while franchise areas of Ilocos Norte Electric Cooperative are fully online.

“Normally assessment will come in after full restoration. But we have initial data in these affected areas, it already runs on more or less approximately at PHP50 million and counting,” Almeda said. (PNA)