Leyte gov’t to electric coops: Ready report on power situation in province

Tacloban City (CNN Philippines, January 9)—  The Leyte Provincial Board issued a resolution on Tuesday requesting five electric cooperatives in the province to provide an energy situation report as well as their plans in 2024 to prevent power outages.

The resolution was proposed by Leyte’s 5th District Board Member Carlo Loreto, who cited that they need to be informed and updated on the power situation in the province to prevent untoward outages that may occur just like what happened in Panay Island and some parts of Leyte province last week.

“After our session, we took on the liberty to pass a resolution requesting all electric cooperatives in the province of Leyte to provide us a report about their projection on energy requirement in their respective area of operation and also to provide us information on what power purchase agreement that they have contracted,” Loreto explained.

The cooperatives asked to present the report to the Sangguniang Panlalawigan hall were Don Orestes Romualdez Electric Cooperative (Dorelco), Leyte II, III, IV, and V Electric which is servicing and providing the electricity needs of 40 municipalities and three cities.

On New Year’s Day, a series of power outages was experienced in some parts of the country including in the service area of Dorelco, where power was out for about six hours.

“We are also asking them to include in their report their necessary steps or fall back in case that there is a shortage of supply on the energy provided under the power purchase agreement,” Loreto added.

After the power outage that hit their areas in January, consumers serviced by Dorelco again experienced a four-hour blackout on Monday night. Power outage was also experienced by LEYECO 3 and V, and the Biliran Electric Cooperative.

Based on the statement of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines, both incidents on Jan. 1 and Monday night were due to a problem with the transmission line from the power generation source to the electric cooperatives’ the distribution line.

CNN Philippines’ Tacloban-based journalist Wil Mark Amazona contributed to this story.