BENECO Announces Whole Day Brownout On Sep. 22 For Baguio City, Parts Of Benguet

The Benguet Electric Cooperative (BENECO) which handles power distribution in Baguio City and Benguet has announced that the city and parts of Benguet province will experience a whole day brownout on Sep. 22. This is due to a scheduled preventive maintenance by the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP).

According to earlier reports, the preventive maintenance was originally scheduled on Sep. 9 but did not push through. On Sep. 18, BENECO confirmed that it will be done on Sep. 22, Friday.

Areas Affected: Baguio City, La Trinidad, Sablan And Tuba

According to BENECO’s Facebook post, the whole day brownout is scheduled from 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. The whole of Baguio City and the municipalities of La Trinidad, Sablan and Tuba will be without power during this time. The announcement was made so that offices and businesses can prepare for it.

Other services that will be affected by the power interruption include water rationing by the Baguio Water District. All pumps operate on electricity so the scheduled rationing or pumping of water on Friday will be affected.

The municipalities of Tublay, Itogon, and Bokod will be partially affected by the brownout. BENECO listed the affected barangays on their Facebook page.

Preparing For The Power Interruption: Things To Do

The NGCP promises to restore power as soon as they are finished with maintenance activities. In the meantime, offices and businesses who rely heavily on electricity have to prepare for Friday.

For businesses, power generators need to be set up with the appropriate supply of fuel enough to last one whole day. Offices on the other hand, have to ensure that their battery-powered devices such as laptops are fully charged. Power banks also need to be fully charged so that mobile devices such as smartphones do not run out of power. Since no power also means no Internet access especially for DSL connections, pocket Wi-Fi devices may tide one over.

An even better option would be to assign tasks or do activities that do not require the use of any electronic gadget.