THERE WILL BE LIGHT. Panay Electric Company (PECO) assures no power interruptions on May 13, election day. PECO vice president for operations Engr. Randy Pastolero in an interview said on Thursday (May 9, 2019) that proper coordination has been done with their power suppliers to ensure the uninterrupted supply. (Contributed photo)
ILOILO CITY -- Panay Electric Company (PECO), Iloilo City’s power distribution, assured continuous electric supply in this highly urbanized city on May 13, election day.
In a phone interview Thursday, Engr. Randy Pastolero, PECO vice president for operations, said they have already coordinated with power supplier, Panay Power Corporation (PPC), to “dispatch their diesel plant” in addition to the supply coming from the coal plant of Panay Energy Development Corporation (PEDC), both subsidiaries of the Global Business Power Corporation (GBPC).
“Barring any untoward incident and emergencies from our power suppliers and from our area of responsibility in our facilities, we feel that we can sustain the elections without power interruption,” Pastolero said.
He added that additional teams and supervisors will also be on duty to monitor the elections.
PECO is hoping that their trouble shooters and line teams can respond immediately to restore power in case of interruptions in polling centers, he said.
“On our part from PECO, as usual every elections we are prepared and ready to respond in the event of emergency power interruptions,” he added.
He said they also coordinated with the Philippine National Police (PNP) to secure power supplies during the day of the electoral exercise as well as the local government unit for the facilities.
“We have coordinated with them wherein they will provide us with security personnel for our vital installations to avoid untoward incidents,” he added.
The Commission on Elections and the PNP are also provided with contact numbers of PECO so they could immediately get in touch with responsible persons in case of emergency.
Meanwhile, Pastolero said that they expect the power demand to be reduced on Monday since there will be no work.
During office hours, the peak demand reaches up to 118 megawatts. (PNA)
