Oct. 23--The National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) has reconnected all its power customers to the Luzon grid. In a report, the power grid operator on Thursday said that it has completed repairing its damaged facilities as of October 16 or just a week after Typhoon Pepeng damaged 38 transmission line structures and 22-substation equipment in Northern Luzon.

The National Grid completed repair works and energized 230-kilovolt and 69-kilovolt transmission lines and structures that were either broken, toppled or left leaning by the typhoon in the northern provinces of La Union, Benguet, Mountain Province and Pangasinan.

"Line crews of NGCP conducted assessment, clearing and restoration works starting October 10 even in inaccessible areas to immediately bring back power to factories, industrial firms, distribution utilities and other customers which are directly connected to the grid," it said.

In Mountain Province where several roads were closed because of landslides caused by Pepeng, National Grid linemen had to walk for several hours from access roads to the job site to manually transport materials for restoration works.

With its toppled structures located now in muddy, heavily flooded areas, only the San Manuel-Concepcion 230-kilovolt line remains to be restored. No customers have been affected by the shutdown of this line.

Typhoon Pepeng knocked down one steel tower and 15 other structures of the San Manuel-Concepcion line in Lipay village, Villasis, Pangasinan.

Work ongoing

Dismantling and retrieval of flooded structures and fabrication of a new tower are ongoing. Construction of a temporary path to Tower No. 213 of the San Manuel-Carmen 69-kilovolt line is also ongoing.

The National Grid reported that repairs would be in full swing once ground conditions became stable enough to carry the weight of transmission line structures.

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