Meralco: Power may not be restored in 24 hours

The Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) may be unable to fully restore power in the Philippine capital within the day, after a storm damaged power lines in Luzon, the country's largest island, the company said on Wednesday. Meralco, Metro Manila’s lone electric distributor, is receiving insufficient power supplies from the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP), the company’s external communications head Joe R. Zaldarriaga said. Strong winds brought by typhoon Basyang damaged several transmission facilities of the NGCP, precluding it from supplying Meralco with enough electricity, he said. "This results in the limited supply of electricity. [The NGCP is the] electricity highway, we need to source power from them," he told GMANews.TV in a phone interview on Wednesday. The NGCP also allots the amount of electricity to be received by power distributors such as Meralco. Earlier in the day, Meralco said that it would be able to restore power in most of the areas affected by the typhoon. However, Meralco has only received 1,000 megawatts of electricity or just 20 percent of its needed power supply as of 2 p.m., Zaldarriaga said, adding that the amount is not enough to restore electricity in all affected areas. "If the source will not be adequate, that changes the picture. (But) as long as the source is adequate to provide electricity, we can do that (restore power)," he said. Power supply to return to normal in one to two days Meanwhile, the NGCP said that power in Metro Manila is expected to "normalize" within one or two days, it said in a statement sent via text message to GMANews.TV. As of 3 p.m., around 41 percent (5,488 megawatts) of the power load in the Luzon power grid has been restored. Power plants Masinloc 1 (300 Megawatts) and Malaya 2 (350 Megawatts) are expected to dispatch power to the grid by 6 p.m. and 12 midnight, respectively, the NGCP added in the same statement. By that time, the NGCP said that about 57 percent of the power load in the Luzon grid would have been restored. Power plants such as Sual 2 and Malaya 1 are also expected to go online after it completes equipment tests on both facilities. It added that Sucat-Araneta and Malaya-Dolores lines, which directly feed electricity to Meralco, have already been energized while the power system in South Luzon from Quezon to the Bicol region has already been restored. However, restoring the NGCP’s damaged facilities may still take about three to four days. One hundred linemen have already been deployed to patrol and repair the transmission facilities, NGCP said. The "system blackout" in areas serviced by Meralco started at 12:42 a.m. Wednesday. Areas without power include the entire Metro Manila and parts of Laguna, Quezon, Cavite, and Bulacan. The public may call or text Meralco at 16211 or 0917-5592824 and 0920-9292824. Customers calling in for inquiries are encouraged to leave their names, contact numbers, landmarks in their area, and service ID numbers. - RJAB Jr., GMANews.TV