Power outages hit Visayas as Urduja affects power lines

Some power lines in the Visayas region were affected on Saturday by the inclement weather brought by Tropical Storm Urduja, the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) reported.

The power outage of the Nasaug-San Isidro-San Miguel-St. Bernard 69 kilovolt (kV) line, which began at 8:31 a.m. on December 15, affected customers of Southern Leyte Electric Cooperative (SOLECO).

Also affected were customers of Eastern Samar Electric Cooperative after the Taft-Borongan-Quinapondan 69kV line tripped at 9:25 a.m. on December 16.

The Babatngon-Arado 69kV line also tripped at 8:22 a.m., Saturday, affecting customers of Leyte II Electric Cooperative (LEYECO II).

"Inspection and restoration of the affected lines will be in full swing as soon as the weather allows," the NGCP said.

"Please note that loss of power may be caused by affected transmission facilities of NGCP or distribution facilities of local distribution utilities or electric cooperatives," it added.

The NGCP said that specific cities and municipalities affected by the power interruptions were determined by concerned distribution utilities, unless the outage affected the entire franchise area.

In its 11 a.m. weather bulletin, PAGASA said the weather disturbance was forecast to move west at a much faster speed of 15 kilometers per hour, packing maximum sustained winds of 80 kph near the center and gustiness of up to 110 kph.

Urduja was last estimated to be 75 km East Northeast of Borongan City, Eastern Samar or 120 km East Southeast of Catarman, Northern Samar. — Ted Cordero/MDM, GMA News