Iloilo city: About 50,000 consumers here are expected to be affected by a 12-hour scheduled power interruption on Sept. 19 as the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) conducts rehabilitation and maintenance work.

According to Philippines News Agency, More Electric and Power Corp. (MORE Power) announced that the interruption, requested by NGCP, will impact seven substations as part of the enhancement of its Iloilo Substation. The outage is scheduled to commence at 5 a.m.

'NGCP has requested a twelve-hour scheduled power interruption within the franchise area of MORE Power affecting seven substations. This is to carry out NGCP's rehabilitation and maintenance works that are part of the upgrading of their Iloilo Substation on Saturday,' MORE Power stated.

The areas affected include the Jaro, Megaworld, Diversion, Molo, Arevalo, Mobile, and Mandurriao substations, along with a part of the La Paz substation for ride-on activities.

MORE Power revealed that it has requested NGCP to implement a tie-up scheme aimed at transferring some consumers to other substations, thereby reducing the number affected by the outage. Initially, more than 70,000 consumers, or about 70 percent of MORE Power's customer base, were expected to be impacted by the 12-hour interruption. The tie-up scheme will decrease the interruption to five hours for some areas, saving about 20,000 consumers from the longer outage.

Furthermore, MORE Power assured that it will work to restore electricity within one to two hours after NGCP fully restores its facilities. This is to ensure the safe completion of the required switching sequence, stabilization of the load, and normalization of distribution in the affected areas.

The scheduled interruption was originally set for Aug. 30 but has been postponed to Sept. 19.