Manila: The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) anticipates the complete restoration of transmission lines in the Visayas region affected by the recent earthquake by Friday.

According to Philippines News Agency, NGCP's advisory issued at 6 p.m. on Thursday indicated that two transmission lines, the Daanbantayan-Tabango 230KV Lines 1 and 2 and the Daanbantayan-Compostela 230KV Line 1, are still out of service. However, NGCP assured that power transmission services in the Visayas grid are operating normally, as the offline lines do not serve any distribution utility firms.

The advisory further mentioned that the Therma Visayas Inc. power plant remains on forced outage following the magnitude 6.9 earthquake that struck Cebu on Tuesday night.

Meanwhile, in an interview during the Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon on Thursday, National Electrification Administration (NEA) Disaster Risk Reduction and management officer-in-charge engineer Eric Compoto stated that the agency continues to monitor the Cebu II Electric Cooperative Inc. (CEBECO II) in Bogo City, the epicenter of the tremor, even though its backbone lines have been re-energized.

Citing a report from the Cebu Electric Cooperative, Campoto noted that two municipalities, Tabuelan and Tuburan, are still without power, but assured consumers that restoration efforts are ongoing. He identified earthquake aftershocks as a significant challenge to these efforts, emphasizing the focus on restoring power to essential institutions like health facilities and government buildings.

Campoto also revealed that initial data suggests minimal damage to electric cooperatives (ECs), and NEA is currently awaiting detailed damage assessment reports from the cooperatives. He added that ECs could utilize NEA's Electric Cooperative Emergency Resiliency Fund (ECEFT) to access grants for recovery from the calamity.