This sucks. For the last three days, I have not been able to stay updated with the news much, or blog much, or surf much, or drop much, or do much of anything that needs the use of electricity. Ugh!
Early Saturday morning (at 2:25 AM), MILF (Moro Islamic Liberation Front) rebels bombed a Transco steel tower in Barangay Tingin-Tingin, Kauswagan, Lanao del Norte. The targeted steel tower is instrumental in delivering power to the entire Zamboanga Peninsula (including the provinces of Zamboanga del Norte and Zamboanga del Sur, and of course Zamboanga City) and parts of Lanao del Norte.
Affected power companies are Ladeco (powering Lanao), Zaneco (powering Zamboanga del Norte), Zamsureco (powering Zamboanga del Sur) and Zamcelco (powering Zamboanga City).
Transco released the following statement:
The 100 megawatt power plant of the Western Mindanao Power Corporation in Sangali, this city [Zamboanga City] immediately shifted to island mode operation after the isolation of Zamboanga Peninsula early dawn today.The “island mode” supply from the power plant successfully reached Transco’s Sangali and Sta. Clara Substations first, then was extended to Aurora Substation as soon as the voltage condition permitted around 9 a.m. Aurora Substation feeds power to the provinces of Zamboanga del Norte, Zamboanga del Sur, Misamis Occidental and part of Lanao del Norte.
It’s a good thing that Zamboanga City has an extra power plant to cope with the Transco bombing. Currently, the Western Mindanao Power Corporation in Sangali is powering the whole Zamboanga Peninsula. Unfortunately, it was not designed to handle such a large customer base, so power is being rotated among the affected areas.
I’ve been monitoring the blackouts these past two days, and power is rotated every two hours. The power just came back at 5:00 PM, so it’s going to go out again by 7:00, and will return by 9:00. I’ve not been sleeping well at all. And I’ve not been able to do much work. Hayyyy.
The blackouts are supposed to last two to three days. Hopefully power will be restored by Wednesday at the latest.
Anyone care to start a vigilante group???
January 13th, 2009 at 9:36 pm
ouch. good thing WMPC exists, then. suddenly i remember the days when i used to work for that company.