KIDAPAWAN CITY (MindaNews / 8 May) – The management of the local electric cooperative in North Cotabato has assured voters and election staff of continued and sustained power during the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections on May 14.
Engr. Godofredo Homez, general manager of the Cotabato Electric Cooperative (Cotelco), made the assurance during Cotelco’s regular blocktime program aired over Catholic-run DXND on Tuesday.
Homez said the electric cooperative has enough power supply that could sustain the needs of their power consumers.
Cotelco, he stressed, has bought at least 40MW of power from different sources, most of which come from coal-fired power plants in Mindanao.
“With our current power situation, I can assure there would be no brownouts to occur in our service areas,” said Homez.
Cotelco covers the municipalities of Magpet, Makilala, Tulunan, M’lang, Carmen, Kabacan, Matalam, President Roxas, Antipas, Arakan, and Kidapawan City, all in North Cotabato. It has 130,000 power consumers as of May 2018, said Cotelco’s information officer Romnick Cabaron.
Homez, however, could not make a hundred percent assurance if bad weather, like heavy winds and torrential rains, would become a problem.
“During bad weather, we are always bombarded with problems like trees falling on our electrical lines, especially when these lines are located on Mount Apo,” he said.
This, however, can be given a solution, he explained.
They have crew who could work, even during nighttime, to work on “fault lines” or lines affected by bad weather.
A seven-hour blackout occurred here on April 23 when a durian tree, toppled by strong winds and rain, fell on a transmission line. Another blackout occurred Sunday evening in Makilala when a coconut tree fell on one of Cotelco’s 69KV lines. (Malu Cadelina Manar / MindaNews)