Negros Electric and Power Corp. (Negros Power) is installing automatic circuit reclosers (ACRs) in its distribution system to reduce the effects of outages on customers in all 44 feeders across its coverage area.

Negros Power president and chief executive officer Roel Castro said in a press conference on Wednesday that of the 40 units ordered, eight were delivered.

“With this introduction of the ACR in the system, we believe the number of feeder level outages will be reduced. It will lessen the affected customers,” he added.

According to eaton.com, ACR is “essentially a self-contained device with the necessary intelligence to sense overcurrents to time and interrupt fault currents, and to re-energize the line by reclosing automatically.”

For instance, Talisay Feeder 3, which spans 141.49 circuit kilometers and has 8,547 customers, has been divided into three sections for the installation of the ACR.

Should there be a fault in the power line of Section 3, only 1,197 customers will experience the power outage, while those under the two other sections will be spared from the brownout.

“We have identified 40 areas or points where we will put the ACRs. For Murcia Feeder 3, as early as Sept. 7 and 8, we have already installed two. The third will be on Oct. 25 to complete the plan to sectionalize the feeder,” Castro said.

He added the eight ACR units that already arrived will all be deployed between October and November.

Castro said the purchase of ACR units is part of the PHP2.1 billion investment of Negros Power to implement its five-year development plan.

The first three years will involve the massive rehabilitation and standardization of the distribution system, while the fourth and fifth years will be the modernization and expansion phases.

Negros Power, the joint venture partner of Central Negros Electric Cooperative, obtained a franchise to manage and operate the electricity distribution system in the cities of Bacolod, Bago, Talisay, and Silay, as well as the municipalities of Murcia and Don Salvador Benedicto in July this year. (PNA)