The whole island of Siargao lost electricity at 4 am Monday, December 1, and residents and business owners in this tourism haven are worried the blackout could last more than a week.
It was only on Tuesday when those in the island were told that the cause of the power failure was a line fault in the 34.5MV submarine cable between Barangay Cagdianao, Claver town, and Barangay Doña Helen, in the island town of Socorro, Surigao del Norte.
The damaged submarine cable in main supplier of electricity to this island.
The island-wide blackout is causing anxiety as authorities have no timeline as to when power will be restored. Aggravating their situation is that this is happening at the start of the Christmas season, when tourists are expected to flock to this self-proclaimed “surfing capital of the Philippines.”
The Siargao Electric Cooperative Incorporated (SIARELCO), in a statement, said that they are coordinating with technical experts to retrieve, inspect, and repair the affected cable.
“At this time, there is no definite schedule for power restoration. However, we are exerting every effort to resolve this issue as quickly as possible. Additionally, technical experts are scheduled to arrive on December 3, 2024, to assess, locate, and address the fault in the submarine cable,” said SIARELCO.
The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP), in an advisory posted on the evening of December 1, said that the underwater cable that brings electricity to Siargao from mainland Surigao del Norte is owned, operated, and maintained by SIARELCO and that the problem is not in their transmission facilities as they were in normal operating condition.
“NGCP is ready to assist SIARELCO in any way it can to expedite the restoration of SIARELCO’s submarine cable, NGCP has sent a line gang as well as a technical team from its Maintenance and Testing Division to Cagdianao, in Claver town to lend whatever assistance the island electric cooperative may need,” said NGCP.
Surigao del Norte 1st District Representative Bingo Matugas reposted the electric cooperative’s statement on his Facebook account, asking for patience and understanding during this challenging time.
“Rest assured, all necessary steps are being taken to restore power to the island at the earliest opportunity,” said Matugas on his social media account.
Several homestay, hostel, and small resort owners have vented their dismay on social media, worried that they might miss out of the expected holiday spending splurge during this peak tourists season.
Philip Cruise, owner of the hostel Maharlika Siargao in General Luna, said that he had to cancel the reservation of a group of 20 people because he could not accommodate them without an adequate diesel generator.
“The canceled guests of about 20 people for a two-day stay is already worth P30,000 in revenue, not to mention the small groups of two to five people who have booked, in just a few days, we will lose more than P40,000,” said Cruise.
Cruise said that only the high-end big resorts can afford bigger generator sets that can sustain and run several air-conditioning systems and electric lighting for the rooms of the guests.
Christophe Bariou, who owns a resort and a restaurant in General Luna, said that the problem will affect not only the businesses on the island but also those who are working in the establishments as they will not be paid by the resorts, restaurants, and bars during the power interruption.
“Most of the small business owners here have not yet fully recovered from Typhoon Odette and are still striving to save. The people working in those establishments affected in this brownout who expected to save for Christmas will also be affected, even with adequate generators. They won’t be operating in their full optimum business hours as it will be very expensive to run those generators for a long period,” said Bariou.
“An affected restaurant will lose an average daily of P10 to P20,000 that’s just in sales. How about the cost of fuel for the generators if we have them running? Example if I have my generator running in the resort for eight hours, I will have to spend P5,000, in bigger resorts they will be spending around P10-P15 thousand pesos to have it running,” said Bariou.
Bariou said out that the power generation problem in Siargao Island, especially in General Luna, has been going on for years and that the people, business owners, and tourists have been dealing with the weekly brownouts and almost daily power fluctuations. The current island-wide power outage is a wake-up call to take seriously the power supply problem.
– Rappler.com