LATE BREAKING UPDATE-CARINA RESTORATION OPS
By Laarni S. Ilagan
The landslide at 11 AM at KM 25, Caliking, Atok, Benguet today July 26, 2024, downed Circuit 1 of the Benguet Electric Cooperative (BENECO) rendering parts of four Benguet towns without electricity.
The whole municipality of Kapangan and several barangays of Tublay, Atok, and Kibungan towns are now without power.
The 96.42 % (as of 8 AM of July 26) restored a number of consumers for both Baguio and Benguet, went down to 90.32% at 12 noon as a result of the KM 25 Atok landslide that felled one BENECO primary pole carrying the powerlines from the Atok Substation to the municipalities covered by Circuit 1.
This was barely a few hours of respite from the heavy rainfall and strong winds due to the monsoon caused by the tail end of typhoon Carina, which the co-op was taking advantage of to hasten its power restoration in the far-flung and landslide-prone municipalities of Benguet.
BENECO restoration team was able to put up all the damaged poles in Baguio City by July 25.
Torrential rains with strong winds battered Baguio City and Benguet since the night of July 24, 2024, when Carina was supposed to exit the Philippines.
As of 12 noon today, the cost of damage to BENECO’s distribution utility jumped from P2.6 million as of 8 AM, to more than three million, BENECO’s technical department System Planning and Design engineer Maureen Hollman-Ramirez.
“Reports started to pour in this morning from other Benguet municipalities like Bakun, “ Network Services Department (NSD) manager Ramel Rifani explained during the early morning assessment meeting with members of the BENECO Disaster Mitigating Emergency Response Plan committee members.
The BDMERP is the bible of the cooperative during times of emergency situations.
Except for some isolated cases in pockets of some barangays, Baguio City’s 120 out of 129 barangays power was restored. The co-op also dealt with numerous reports of low voltage in Baguio City, it hoped to resolve at the soonest possible time since the weather improved.
The number of barangays that BENECO has restored power from other municipalities are as follows:
Bakun-3 out of 7; Kibungan-3 out of 7; Tuba-12 out of 13;. The towns of Bokod, Buguias, Itogon, Kabayan, La Trinidad, Mankayan, and Sablan’s barangays were 100 % energized as of 12 noon of July 26
GM Licoben said that the fluctuation in the percentage of consumers restored by our co-op is highly dependent on the damage reports that BENECO receives. There are times that areas reported as restored may again experience power interruption. There are also areas that are reported without power but restoration operations are ongoing just like in the case of Circuit 1.. (LSI)
