Typhoon Ulysses plunges Luzon in darkness

Typhoon Ulysses (international name: Vamco) has knocked out 32 power transmission lines across Luzon and interrupted services for as many as 3.8 million customers across the franchise of Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) alone.

The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) said that as of 1 p.m. on Thursday, there were power lines unavailable in parts of Bicol, Calabarzon, Central Luzon and Cordillera Administrative Region.

Even then, NGCP has brought back online a total of eight 69-kilovolt lines in Sorsogon, Albay, Camarines Sur, Quezon, Batangas and Laguna.

In South Luzon, there were six affected 69-kV lines that provide electricity from power plants to distribution utilities in other parts of Batangas, Quezon, Camarines Sur and Albay.In North Luzon, 13 69-kV lines suffered outage, disrupting the flow of supply in Mountain Province, Benguet, Tarlac, Pangasinan, Zambales, Nueva Ecija and Pampanga.

In addition, major transmission lines that deliver electricity over longer distances—such as the 500-kV San Jose-Tayabas line; the 115-kV Dasmarinas-Rosario line in Cavite; and 11 230-kV lines in Central Luzon, Calabarzon and Bicol—were also not available.

“Inspection and restoration of lines in the affected areas will be in full swing as soon as the weather allows,” NGCP said in a statement.

The grid operator reiterated that there may be cases when a transmission line has been restored but the surrounding area remains without electricity services because the local distribution network sustained damage.

According to Meralco, the effects of Ulysses were felt across their franchise areas—which stretch as far north as parts of Pampanga and as far south as parts of Quezon province—unlike in the aftermath of several previous typhoons.

As of 12 noon on Thursday, Meralco has reduced the number of customers still without electricity to 1.9 million, including 760,000 customers in Metro Manila.

Meralco spokesperson Joe Zaldarriaga said in a press briefing Metro Manila was the worst hit, with outages affecting more than one million customers.

The power distributor had to deploy crews to restore services in various parts of Bulacan, Cavite, Rizal, Batangas and Quezon.

“We expect to restore services in many affected areas steadily, but those in areas where it may be dangerous to do restoration may have to wait longer,” he said.