BAGUIO CITY – Typhoon Carina’s aftermath of extreme heavy rainfall and strong winds on the night of July 24, 2024 left the Benguet Electric Cooperative (BENECO) with damages worth 2.4 million.
As of noon on July 25, damage to BENECO’s distribution system totaled 2.3 million pesos, primarily due to a substation recloser worth over a million, seven collapsed or damaged poles, and three transformers.
The total cost is expected to rise as more reports arrive from remote areas of Benguet.
As of noon on July 25, BENECO has restored power to 97.5% of affected consumers in Baguio City.
Ninety linemen worked in shifts over the past 24 hours to address outage reports from consumers, local government units (LGUs), and partner agencies.
Landslides hampered restoration efforts in the municipality of Atok in the province of Benguet by damaging poles and blocking roads, while linemen in the municipalities of Kapangan and Kibungan faced heavy rains and strong winds to repair low-hanging wires.
Power was restored in these towns by noon today.
The remaining towns in Benguet have almost full power restoration.
BENECO has advised consumers to expect intermittent power interruptions over the next few days due to unpredictable weather conditions caused by the typhoon.
“BENECO has been monitoring Typhoon Carina since Sunday. This triggers for the activation of the electricity restoration teams in consonance with BENECO’s disaster mitigation plans. And right now the assessment team reports the extent of damages on field, in addition to the reports from communities, while, we safely restore other affected areas in parallel,” BENECO general manager Melchor S. Licoben said.