NGCP-Bicol ensures power contingency plans for May 13

LEGAZPI CITY — The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) in Bicol said Friday that contingency measures are now in place to check and address any grid disturbances that could possibly happen on election day.

The plan includes the setting up of a Command Center that would be activated on Friday until May 16, to operate 24/7, according to Nilda Somera, NGCP regional communication and public affairs officer.

Somera, in an interview, said NGCP would deploy maintenance and troubleshooting crew who would be on standby to address and secure power transmission operations and facilities during this year’s mid-term elections.

The NGCP’s critical units, such as System Operations (SO) and Operations and Maintenance (O&M), remain fully staffed and would be on round-the-clock duty while line crews, engineers, pilots, maintenance and testing and other technical personnel were strategically positioned in the firm’s substations to respond to line tripping should these occur, she said.

The NGCP had earlier organized a Power Task Force Election, a special team formed to ensure the security and reliability of various transmission networks in the six Bicol provinces during the election.

Somera said the Task Force had been activated as early as March this year, to ensure that no power transmission glitches would occur on May 13.