Lightning Strike Causes Province-Wide Blackout in Oriental Mindoro; Restoration Underway

CALAPAN CITY, Oriental Mindoro — A lightning strike damaged key electrical equipment at the Socorro Substation late Wednesday night, causing a total power interruption that affected the entire province of Oriental Mindoro, the Oriental Mindoro Electric Cooperative (Ormeco) said. In an advisory, Ormeco said the outage occurred at 11:23 p.m. on July 22 after lightning struck the substation, burning the Current Transformer/Potential Transformer (CT/PT) and a suspension insulator. The incident coincided with a voltage surge which led to the province-wide outage. Ormeco began the gradual restoration of electricity by energizing feeders by phases. READ: Oriental Mindoro brownouts ‘worsen’ The electric cooperative said inspection, assessment, and corrective works at the Socorro Substation are ongoing while restoration efforts continue to ensure the safety of personnel and the stability of the power system. Ormeco said it will issue further advisories as additional feeders are restored until electricity service is fully normalized across all affected areas. /das