Crane hits power line, causes blackout in Metro

MANILA, Philippines – A crane that hit a facility of the National Transmission Corp. (TransCo) in Sta. Mesa, Manila caused a massive power outage in most parts of northern Metro Manila yesterday morning.

The power outage grounded trains and disrupted traffic, leaving commuters stranded throughout Metro Manila.

TransCo reported full restoration of power at 11 a.m. in the areas affected by the tripping of its Sucat-Araneta transmission line.

According to TransCo, field personnel reported that a tower crane of an ongoing construction near the SM Centerpoint in Sta. Mesa caused the tripping at 8:41 a.m.

The crane’s hook got entangled on the transmission cable, which partially damaged the line.

Consequently, a load drop of 1,200 megawatts in the North Sector of the Meralco franchise areas was experienced due to the tripping.

The affected areas were  Quezon City, Caloocan-Malabon-Navotas-Valenzuela (CAMANAVA) and parts of Bulacan and Manila.

The tripping also caused the automatic shutdown of Limay A combined-cycle, Calaca coal-fired, Quezon Power Philippines Ltd. (QPPL) and Pagbilao coal-fired power plants. The automatic shutdown is meant to prevent damage to equipment of power plants.

The TransCo System Operations group subsequently dispatched more electricity from power plants in north Luzon to compensate for generation loss.

By noon, the Sucat-Araneta line had also been re-energized.

Meralco said among the affected substations were Balintawak, Araneta, Sta. Mesa, North Port, Tutuban, Tegen, Grace Park, Kamuning, Diliman, Novaliches, Kaybiga, Bagbaguin, Malinta, Malabon and Bocaue substations.

Meralco vice president for corporate communications Elpi Cuna said these substations serve a large part of the northern portion of Meralco’s franchise area, including parts of the city of Manila and Makati.

The power outage disrupted operations of the Light Rail Transit Lines 1 and 2 and the Metro Rail Transit affecting hundreds of thousands of passengers.

Engr. Federico Canar, director of the LRT1 operations and engineering division, said around 300,000 passengers got off from around 100 trains of the LRT1.

Canar said the LRT1 resumed operations at around 10:15 a.m.

As for the LRT2, station operations division director Antonio Laygo said rectifier substations in Santolan and Katipunan provided power that allowed partial operations to resume between the Cubao and Santolan stations at 10:06 a.m.

Laygo said around 30,000 passengers were affected.

For the MRT, public relations officer Lysa Blancaflor said the power outage affected only the portion from North Avenue to Kamuning stations for 31 minutes.

Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes has directed TransCo president Arthur Aguilar to coordinate closely with the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) and local government units (LGUs) to set safety nets on construction near transmission lines to avoid similar incidents in the future.

According to Reyes, they have yet to determine if the construction firm will be held liable for the damages caused by the almost two-hour power outage.

A few years back, a dump truck had hit a transmission line post of TransCo and caused a blackout in most parts of Luzon.

Cuna said since construction activities usually peak during the summer months, construction personnel, most especially workers, must observe safety at work at all times.

“In order to minimize accidents, construction personnel must simply adhere to basic safety precautions. They should keep a very safe distance from our line facilities while working.” Cuna said. - With Reinir Padua, AP