MANILA — Typhoon Tino (Kalmaegi) knocked out five major transmission lines across the Visayas and Mindanao on Tuesday, plunging electric cooperatives serving thousands of customers into darkness as the storm raged westward, the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines reported.
The outages affected the Maasin-Baybay 69kV line, which supplies the Leyte IV Electric Cooperative (LEYECO IV); the Ormoc-San Isidro 69kV line, powering the Don Orestes Romualdez Electric Cooperative (DORECO) in Tolosa, Leyte, along with the Southern Leyte Electric Cooperative (SOLECO), LEYECO III and LEYECO V; and the Ormoc-Baybay 69kV line, serving LEYECO IV and LEYECO V.
Also down were the Maasin-San Isidro 69kV line, which feeds SOLECO, and the Placer-Madrid 69kV line, providing electricity to the Surigao del Norte Electric Cooperative (SURNECO), Siargao Electric Cooperative (SIARELCO) and Surigao del Sur II Electric Cooperative (SURSECO II).
Two additional lines — one 38kV and one 350kV — were unavailable, though NGCP did not specify the affected areas.
The grid operator said it had deployed line crews for patrols and was carrying out simultaneous restoration work in accessible areas.
As of 5 a.m., the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration located Tino’s eye over coastal waters off San Francisco, Cebu, with maximum sustained winds of 150 kilometers per hour near the center and gusts up to 205 kph. The typhoon was tracking westward at 25 kph.
