Transmission operator National Grid Corp. of the Philippines said Wednesday it is doing repairs on one of the two circuits of its 138-kilovolt high voltage submarine cable damaged during the dredging and re-channeling activities of the Department of Public Works and Highways along Bio-os River, Barangay Jagna, Amlan, Negros Oriental last month.
The cable, which interconnects Negros and Cebu, has two circuits of 138-kV submarine cable, each with 90-megawatt capacity.
NGCP said because of the damage to one of the two circuits, transmission capacity was limited to 90 MW between Negros and Cebu.
NGCP said its system integrity protection scheme was automatically activated after the June 15 incident to isolate the affected circuit and prevent overloading of the remaining cable.
The company said it received initial reports which indicated that a contributing factor to the incident was the deviation on the agreed work site by the DPWH.
NGCP requested the local government of Amlan and the DPWH to temporarily stop their operations and immediately implemented measures to contain the resulting oil spill.
NGCP said that during the dredging and re-channeling activities, the machines hit the submarine cable, causing the oil spill. Around 495 liters of mineral oil was spilled, which NGCP reported to the Coast Guard and to the Department of Environment and Natural Resources Region 7.
“It is unfortunate that this happened at such a crucial time when electricity is critical to COVID-19 response efforts. NGCP assures its stakeholders that all hands are on deck to restore the affected facility and mitigate the impacts of the oil spill and scattered cable debris,” the company said.
The extent of the damage was fully assessed on June 23 to 24 and coordination is ongoing with partner foreign technical experts for the start of actual repair activities.
The Mindanao-Visayas Interconnection Project may extend beyond its adjusted December 2021 target completion because of the damage of several portions of its fiber optic cable connection.