Power restored in Balanga City, 5 of 11 towns in Bataan

BALANGA CITY, Bataan - The Peninsula Electric Cooperative on Saturday announced the restoration of power in this city and five out of 11 towns in Bataan and its readiness to put back electricity in the whole province as soon as the Transmission Corporation of the Philippines completes works on its transmission lines. Already with power are the towns of Dinalupihan, Pilar, Orion, and Limay and portions of this city, Penelco general manager Loreto Marcelino said through spokesperson Sol Tria. The whole province was plunged into darkness at 12:15 a.m. on Thursday when Typhoon Milenyo threw its fury — uprooting trees, cutting branches, and damaging Penelco and Transco in less than two hours. "All our main lines (backbones) and 40 posts damaged by Milenyo are all in place, and we are just waiting for Transco, the electric supplier, to complete its restoration activities on the 69 kV lines," Marcelino said. A KV, or kilovolt, line is part of an electical distribution system. Billy Loyola, Transco Bataan branch manager, said they had gone in full blast retrieval and replacement operations of transmission lines. He said that although replacements of damaged posts would still take a week to complete, power in the whole of Bataan and Zambales will be back by Saturday or Sunday. Downed by the storm were 48 line posts — 30 Bataan and 18 in Zambales. Retrieval of the posts is ongoing in the two Central Luzon provinces. Replacements will follow, according to Transco fieldmen. Loyola placed the damage to properties of Transco in the form of materials at P100 million in Bataan and Zambales. Transco also registered losses on its revenues by more than P50 million. Transco, Loyola said, will pay for damages caused by its fallen electric posts as soon as they had made their cost assessments. Transco posts fell on many residential houses, mostly in Palihan, Hermosa in Bataan. The company dispatched to Bataan line crews from Ilocos, Isabela, Pangasinan, and Nueva Ecija. Bataan Gov. Enrique Garcia said the power outages had severely affected businesses and even ordinary residents. He urged that restoration efforts be doubled to bring back electricity at the earliest time. On Friday, the governor declared a state of calamity in the whole of Bataan. Two big landslides at the zigzag road and Barangay Sisiman, both in Mariveles town affected the transport of products in some factories at the Bataan Economic Zone and the water supply of residents. - GMANews.Tv