INQUIRER PHOTO / NIÑO JESUS ORBETA
Power outages hit large swaths of Luzon, including Metro Manila, Tuesday as winds brought by Typhoon “Pedring” damaged electric posts and toppled transmission towers.
A total of 1.9 million customers, mostly households, representing 39 percent of Manila Electric Co.’s (Meralco) customer base of 4.9 million in Metro Manila and neighboring areas, lost their power supply.
In northern Luzon, the provinces of Quirino, Kalinga, Nueva Vizcaya, Nueva Ecija, Pampanga, Bataan and Zambales were completely without power, according to National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP).
As of 5 p.m. Tuesday, NGCP reported that 95 percent of Isabela, 86 percent of Cavite, 47 percent of Cagayan, 36 percent of La Union, 24 percent of Ilocos Norte and 9 percent of Laguna were still without power.
President Benigno Aquino III, who is on a working visit in Japan, directed Energy Secretary Jose Rene Almendras to cut short his stay in Tokyo and fly back to Manila to help address the power problem.
“I’m going home to make sure that we restore power as soon as possible,” Almendras said. He was to leave the Japanese capital at 6:30 Tuesday night.
Constant updates
In an advisory, Meralco said that as of 2:15 p.m. Tuesday, 31 percent, or 216 of its 698 circuits, remained without power. This was an improvement from the 313 (or 44 percent) of the company’s circuits that were down as of 12:30 p.m.
“Meralco is on full alert and has mobilized its service crews, business centers, business segments and the call center to respond to emergency situations,” said Alfredo S. Panlilio, Meralco senior vice president and head of customer retail services and corporate communications.
Panlilio said the company’s social media channels (Facebook and Twitter) were giving customers constant updates.
Meralco declined to say when it could complete the repairs of its facilities. The power distributor, however, said it hoped to restore power to majority of its customers by Tuesday night.
The NGCP, operator of the country’s transmission facilities, reported that as of noon Tuesday, the lines that tripped included the Bacnotan-Luelco-Agoo-Tiblong 69-kilovolt Line; Itogon-Tuba 23-kV Line; Ambuklao-Beckel 69-kV Line; Binga-San Manuel 230-kV Line 2; Bayombong-Santiago 230-kV Line; Bayombong-Santiago 230-kV Line; and Bayombong-Lagawe 69-kV Line, in northern Luzon.
Also damaged were the Limay-Exemplar 69-kV Line; Hermosa-Balanga 69-kV Line; Mexico-PIMU 69-kV Line; Mexico-Balintawak 230-kV Line; San Jose-Tayabas 500-kV Line 1; Balintawak-Mexico 230-kV Line; and San Jose-Angat 115-kV Line 3, all in northern Luzon.
In southern Luzon, affected lines included Batangas-Ibaan-Rosario 69-kV Line; Batangas-Lipa-Rosario 69-kV Line; and the Pawa-Tabaco-Malinao section.
“Loss of power may be caused by damaged transmission facilities of NGCP or damaged distribution facilities of local distribution utilities or electric cooperatives,” the NGCP said. Reports from Amy R. Remo and Christian V. Esguerra
Originally posted: 9:39 pm | Tuesday, September 27th, 2011