ZAMBOANGA CITY (MindaNews / 23 March) – Over 22,000 households, business establishments, and hospitals in Zamboanga City have been without electricity for almost 40 hours as of 7 p.m. Monday.

The Zamboanga City Electric Cooperative (Zamcelco) originally scheduled the power interruption on March 21 to repair an oil leak in one of its transformers. The schedule was moved to a day later in consideration of the Eid’l Fitr celebration.

Consumers from the Northside, Tetuan, ZAMPEN and  Mercedes feeders were advised of the scheduled power interruption from 4 a.m. – 12 noon of Mar 22. But repair works extended for over 38 hours, as of this report.

Zamcelco General Manager Gannymede Tiu explained that Crizlink Corporation, a third-party contractor, was tapped to repair the transformer.

However, air ingress occurred during the repair works, resulting in gas accumulation in the relay chamber.

Tiu said, since Sunday afternoon, the contractor has been trying to filter the gas out of the relay chamber, and has attempted to reenergize the affected feeders numerous times, to no avail.

Zamcelco fired up its two 4-megawatt generator sets, which managed to give electricity to some household for a few hours. 

“The load is limited. While we’re using it at dawn today and we loaded the other feeders, customer demand was also high that it tripped off due to overloading of the generator sets,” Tiu explained mostly in Filipino.

He said they have asked urgent help from the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines to approve the operation of the newly opened 20-MVA substation in Barangay Culianan, which can provide electricity to the nearby Mercedes feeder.

“They asked for other requirements. We have submitted them, I hope they can already approve it,” he said.

The extended power interruption has caused inconvenience to many residents covered by the four affected feeders.

May Grace Barbas, a store caretaker in Barangay Putik said they are incurring huge losses due to the power problem.

Ice cream inside their freezers had melted, soft drinks were no longer cold, and hotdogs and other cold cuts are expected to be damaged soon.

“Our business is really losing,” she said.

A resident of Barangay Tetuan personally went to Zamcelco to complain about the prolonged blackout.

He refused to give his name but he said his family slept outside their veranda on Sunday night due to the heat.

“We’re good payers, they should render good service,” he said.

The management of Zamboanga Peninsula Medical Center has been operating on their generator sets since Sunday. On Monday afternoon, the hospital advised the electric cooperative that they were running out of diesel.

Another affected hospital is the Zamboanga Regional Medical Center located in Barangay Pasobolong.

Meanwhile, engineers from Davao del Sur Electric Cooperative are expected to arrive in Zamboanga Monday night to check how the repair work can be done faster.

Zamcelco mulled imposing a rotational blackout schedule in the areas covered by the four affected feeders while the problem remains unresolved. (Queenie Casimiro/MindaNews)