SOLECO restores full power in Southern Leyte

The Southern Leyte Electric Cooperative was recently given approval by National Grid Company of the Philippines (NGCP) to gradually energize its remaining 3 Substations in Sogod, Liloan and Saint Bernard. SOLECO was initially granted a supply of 5 Megawatts which was later increased to 6MW last night and eventually was allowed to energize all its remaining Substations. At present power in all municipalities have been restored through our three-phase main distribution lines. Repairs of some lateral lines and individual connections however hava not yet been 100% completed leaving some consumers still without power. Continuing repairs are still being conducted by SOLECO maintenance crews.

Due to the widespread damage to individual service connections caused by Typhoon Yolanda, SOLECO is appealing to its consumers for patience with its restoration efforts and time-constraints due to its thinly spread out personnel. SOLECO’s re-energization is done on a stage-by-stage (cut-out by cut-out) basis for safety and efficiency considerations. The power utilized by SOLECO is derived from Power plants in Cebu and Negros and transmitted through the Cebu-Tabango submarine cable and then the Tabango-Ormoc-Maasin 138KV Line.

Power obtained through this line is subdivided among Leyeco V (Ormoc), Leyeco IV (Hilongos), SOLECO and Bohol ECs (Bohoco I & II). Regarding the status of the Tongonan Power plants, SOLECO has not yet received an update on the duration of the repairs being conducted there. As to when these will start functioning again is still uncertain. Initial information gathered by SOLECO is that repairs of the power plant’s cooling towers that were blown away by Yolanda is going to take at least two to three months.

The total demand of SOLECO is 17.5MW. If the supply becomes insufficient we may have to implement rotational brown-outs depending on the availability of power supply.