ILIGAN CITY (MindaNews / 29 October) – A power outage hit Marawi City, all 39 towns of Lanao del Sur and three towns of Lanao del Norte for over eight hours on Thursday.
Entrance to the Agus 1 hydroelectric power plant in Marawi City. MindaNews file photo by H. MARCOS C. MORDENO
An acacia mangium tree that fell and toppled the 138-kilovolt line inside the Agus 1 hydroelectric power plant in Marawi City caused the outage, Elizabeth Ladaga, spokesperson of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines Mindanao Office said in a phone interview.
The incident occurred at 6:28 a.m. and affected the substation of Agus 1 and Agus 2 in Saguiaran, Lanao del Sur, Ladaga said.
Aside from Marawi and Lanao del Sur, the outage also hit Pantar, Balo-i and Pantao Ragat towns in Lanao del Norte, which relies on power from the Lanao del Sur Electric Cooperative.
Ladaga said the NGCP had reenergized the substation’s VTie line at 2:45 p.m. after the National Power Corp. replaced the damaged equipment inside the Agus 1 switchyard in Marawi.
The NGCP engineering team also performed ride-on corrective works at Agus 1 substation, she added.
Lieutenant Michael Kent Go, officer-in-charge of the police office of Pantao Ragat said in a phone call that power was restored in the town at 2:51 p.m. Thursday.
Dr. Shalimar Rakiin, chief of Amai Pakpak Medical Center (APMC) in Marawi City in a phone interview said the outage did not affect them as they have three 500-KVA power generators and another one with a 750-KVA capacity.
“We have prepared additional 800 liters of fuel in case the power outage will last 24 hours,” she said.
She added the hospital needs a stable power supply because it is attending to COVID-19 patients. (Richel Umel/MindaNews)
