Blackout to last 4 days

MANILA, Philippines - Typhoon “Basyang” sent trees and billboards crashing down on power lines, plunging Metro Manila and surrounding provinces in darkness late Tuesday with full restoration of power expected only after three to four days.

The National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) said the powerful winds from Basyang (international name Conson) damaged all the power transmission lines of the Luzon grid that led to a total shutdown at 12:42 a.m.

Wide areas of Metro Manila and nearby provinces were plunged into darkness as Basyang howled across the metropolis late Tuesday as the NGCP declared a systems outage. Power in many areas was still not restored as of last night.

Energy Secretary Jose Rene Almendras ordered the NGCP to restore power at the soonest possible time but officials stressed this might take time because of the extent of damage.

NGCP senior technical adviser Guillermo Redoblado said they are moving to restore more than 50 percent of the power in the Luzon grid before midnight Wednesday.

Redoblado also appealed to the public to be patient.

“The citizenry can do a lot today. They have to understand that we are doing our best to restore power service. Typhoon Basyang had strong winds, thus some lines were cut off. I also want to call the attention of advertisers as there were tarpaulins that got entangled with our lines. Right now, we hope we could speed up the inspection to be able to address the damage,” he said.

The power outage forced Malacañang to declare the suspension of work in all government agencies, except for the police and rescue personnel who began clearing up the debris left by the storm.

Banks opened with skeletal forces as they were powered by backup generators.

Classes were also suspended as dozens of domestic and international flights were suspended and diverted from the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).

The Luzon-wide blackout also sidelined the LRT and MRT rail transit commuter systems, stranding thousands of passengers since yesterday morning.

Light Railway Transit Authority (LRTA) administrator Melquiades Robles explained that both railway systems depend on the power supply coming from the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco).

“We have to wait for them to restore our power supply before we can start our operations,” Robles said.

Even after Meralco made initial efforts to restore power in the afternoon, Robles said it was not adequate to resume railway operations.

Metro Rail Transit (MRT) general manager Reynaldo Berroya added the power that was restored by Meralco was inadequate to resume the full operations of the MRT line along EDSA.

Power in about 20 percent of areas covered by the Meralco franchise was restored by yesterday afternoon.

Meralco spokesman Joe Zaldarriaga said they have restored power in some portions of Laguna (Canlubang and Calamba); Ternate in Cavite; Sta. Maria and Meycauayan in Bulacan, and some portions of Metro Manila including Balintawak, Diliman, Kaybiga, and Bagbaguin in Quezon City. Meralco has 4.7 million customers.

The Luzon grid accounts for 75 percent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) and has a population of 51 million. The Meralco franchise area accounts for 54 percent of GDP and more than 22 million population.

Zaldarriaga pointed out Meralco would be dependent on the NGCP’s restoration efforts.

“We will provide power to our customers depending on the supply coming from NGCP. As supply comes and based on our system capability, we will be distributing it to our franchise area,” he said.

Zaldarriaga said Meralco crews have been working round the clock to restore power in affected areas. “We would like to ensure first, too, that all obstructions have been cleared, like toppled trees and billboards, before we restore power to assure the safety of everyone,” he said. 

Zaldarriaga said they are having difficulty in restoring power in some areas but would “continue to coordinate with all concerned parties to be able to restore power at the soonest and most reasonable time possible.”

Economic impact

Asked about the economic and rate impact of the four-day blackout, Redoblado replied it could be premature to estimate.

“We still could not discuss if there will be a rate impact,” he said.

Even as the NGCP refused to elaborate on the possible economic impact of the four-day power outage, the National Transmission Corp. (Transco) said a one-hour blackout could translate to economic losses amounting to P175 million.

Most of the country’s economic activities like bank transactions and stock exchange and the wholesale electricity spot market are dependent on power, Transco said.

With projected restoration in four days, the economic losses could reach more than P16 billion.

On the readiness of NGCP in future weather disturbances, Redoblado said they could only ask for divine guidance.

“Perhaps, we can only pray,” he said. “Though we’re replacing the deteriorated components and this is really a trial for us, and we learn from this. We really have to hurry up the replacement. We’re trying to meet the deadline before the typhoons hit again.”

Redoblado said the preparations to ensure continuous power supply for the May 10 elections had delayed the maintenance of their facilities.

“We were preparing for Task Force Halalan and there was a period when we could not shut down a line for a month. And for that one month, it had a huge impact on the maintenance and replacement program. But we’re making up and working double time,” he said.

Almendras, on the other hand, assured the public they had the situation under control.

Almendras said he was given assurance by the National Power Corp. (Napocor) that the water levels and the operating protocols in the dams were under control.

“Last night (Tuesday), I was monitoring NGCP operations (on) the Luzon wide shutdown (and it) was inevitable because of massive tripping caused by transmission line problems,” he said.

Napocor denied reports that yesterday’s massive power outage was caused by dipping water elevation at the dams.

Efren Escalandia, operations manager of Napocor’s Angat River Hydro Electric Power Plant, said the power plant’s operations had been shut down a week before the typhoon struck because of the low water elevation at the dam.

Escalandia said that even if power generation of all hydroelectric power plants in Luzon were combined, it will only amount to less than 10 percent of power requirement of the Luzon grid.

Escalandia pointed out the Luzon grid requires at least 6,000 megawatts as compared to Angat’s peak power generation of only 246 megawatts. - With Jaime Laude, Rainier Allan Ronda, Dino Balabo