The Ilocos Norte Electric Cooperative (INEC) on Monday announced a five-year plan to upgrade its distribution system to solve perennial power outages in the province, which is expected to cost around PHP3 billion.

The average daily electricity demand of the cooperative’s 183,000 members rose to 67 megawatts from 40 megawatts due to El Niño phenomenon, acting general manager Cipriano Martinez said in a press conference at the INEC main office in Dingras said.

“Whatever it takes, we will do that (upgrading of the system) to become efficient in distribution,” Martinez said, citing the plan to take out a loan from the National Electrification Administration (NEA).

Engineer Jenner Pablo, INEC Construction, Operation and Maintenance Division manager, said at least three of their substations are nearly reaching 100 percent capacity and the other transformers are overloaded, hence, the need to make some adjustments to address the situation temporarily.

However, this takes time, thus the power outages in affected substations such as in Dingras, Marcos and Tanggaoan in Vintar.

To ensure the reliability of the distribution system and cater to the increasing power demand of consumers, Pablo said, there is a need to add more substations and increase the capacity of existing substations and transformers to avoid overloading or underloading.

To date, INEC has 11 existing substations but the one in Badoc is currently under the rebuilding stage after it was damaged last year, while the one in Bacarra is expected to be completed in six months.

“Aside from the two (substations in Badoc and Bacarra), we need to put up three more substations in Pagudpud, Laoag and Nueva Era,” Martinez added.

A new substation in San Nicolas town is also being prepared for commissioning in time for the opening of the SM Laoag at the end of this year. (PNA)