CANE POINTS: ‘No pain, no gain’ applies to power supply, too

On Wednesday last week (February 19), Negros Power’s Murcia Feeder 1 tripped off at 8:58 PM, causing a power interruption affecting the eastern part of Brgy Mansilingan from Purok Manayao-sayao down to Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal church and southwards to portions of Brgy. Handumanan.

Five minutes after the trip-off occurred, Negros Power posted in its Facebook page that an unknown electrical fault triggered the activation of its protective equipment installed at Murcia Feeder 1, causing the unscheduled power interruption.

Within seconds, keyboard warriors flooded the post with comments, majority of which were blaming Negros Power for the brownout and cursing Negros Power to the deepest depths of hell for the inconvenience the brownout caused them.

Ironic. The post which these bitter Facebook users were using as a medium to bash Negros Power is the same “good news” post which should have brought comfort and hope to them as consumers.

The post clearly indicates that, immediately after the interruption, Negros Power already knew that something’s wrong with the power lines connected to the Murcia Feeder 1. With that knowledge, Negros Power could initiate measures to localize the fault and implement necessary corrective measures.

Gone were the days when consumers were literally in the dark about the cause of the power interruption, whether Ceneco was aware that there was such a problem in the area, what actions were being done to address the problem, and what approximate time the power would resume.

In those days under the previous administration, mothers with babies and toddlers, people with sick family members and home-based online workers were at a loss during brownouts whether they should wait at their homes and pray that power would soon be restored, or they should transfer to another location where there was power.

At 9:40 PM, Negros Power posted again that power was restored at Murcia Feeder 1, except for the area from Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal Church southwards to portions of Handumanan.

The post was updated at 9:59 PM to add that Negros Power has localized and identified the fault as broken pin insulators at Purok Kabugwason, Mansilingan, that Negros Power personnel were working to replace the broken insulators, and that power was estimated to be restored in an hour.

Power along the primary lines from the church up to portions of Handumanan had to be cut off to allow Negros Power personnel to work on the electrical installations. At that time, a light rain was falling in that area, but the rain and cold winds did not deter Negros Power linemen from replacing the broken pin insulators.

Pin insulators are disc-shaped objects attached to the cross arms atop the poles. Aside from serving as semi-conductors to ensure that the wires do not touch the cross arms, pin insulators also hold the wires in place so that they do not sway during strong winds and touch each other, short-circuiting the system and causing a brownout.

Pin insulators are exposed to rain and sun, cold and hot weather all the days and nights of the year. Like all materials, pin insulators also suffer from wear and tear. Their constant exposure to temperature extremes make them brittle, making them break due to “old age”. Thus you have broken pin insulators for no apparent reason. That’s what happened during that brownout Wednesday night last week at areas covered by Murcia Feeder 1.

Negros Power knows that the electrical infrastructure it inherited from Ceneco are already several decades old. That’s why Negros Power infused PhP2.5 billion for its 5-Year Development Plan (2024-2029) to rehabilitate and modernize the electrical infrastructure.
Under the first phase (2024-2027) of the plan’s implementation, Negros Power would undertake the rehabilitation and standardization of the distribution system. These include the replacement of power lines, poles, transformers, kWh meters, insulators and other ancillary equipment, such as Load Break Switches (LBS) and Automatic Circuit Reclosers (ACRs), and the rehabilitation of major substations.

Negros Power has been undertaking the massive replacement of these old pin insulators. And it has also been installing more LBSs and ACRs in the electrical system, so that the entire distribution system will become more stable, more reliable and more resilient to factors which might cause power interruptions. Benefits from these pro-active measures are starting to be felt by consumers, as exemplified in the Murcia Feeder 1 brownout.

What’s noteworthy is the speed (a little over half an hour) with which Negros Power was able to localize and identify the cause of the line trouble.

The LBSs and ACRs are protective equipment that cut off power supply, in case there’s a line fault or short circuit, so that the voltage surge will be disrupted and it can be prevented from causing more damage in the distribution system. When such protective device is activated, it means the line fault is downhill from that device. This allows linemen to concentrate in a smaller area in search for the fault, and finding the trouble faster.

No wonder then that Negros Power located and identified the cause of the power interruption in a little over one hour and, within another hour, was able to restore power to the affected areas in Murcia Feeder 1 that Wednesday night last week.

When you see a Negros Power Facebook post about an unscheduled power interruption, you should be comforted with the knowledge that Negros Power is already aware of the problem, and that its personnel are on the way to solve it and restore power ASAP.*