Meralco to implement 3-hour emergency rotating brownouts

Citing transmission outages of some plants, the Manila Electric Co. will be implementing three-hour emergency rotating brownouts on Thursday in some of its franchise areas.

In a post on its Twitter account, Meralco said the brownouts will affect parts of Manila, Makati, Quezon City, Bulacan and Pasay City.

"A 3-hour emergency Manual Load Dropping/rotating brownout was implemented due to the inability of plants in the south area to generate because of transmission outages," it said.

Earlier, Meralco spokesman Joe Zaldarriaga said power had been restored in 81 percent of Metro Manila, but only to 64 percent of its overall franchise area.

Zaldarriaga said that as of Thursday, areas still without power in NCR include:

Other Meralco areas

In an interview aired on GMA News TV's "News To Go," Zaldarriaga said 99.98 percent of Meralco's franchise area in Quezon province was still without power.

Also, he said that 97 percent of consumers in Batangas, 66 percent in Cavite, and 66 percent in Laguna remain without power.

He noted that the loss of power in southern Luzon was caused by the damage of distribution facilities of local distribution utilities in the area.

"Ang source of electricity coming from the south, ung mga power plant diyan, cannot generate power dahil walang dadaluyan," he said.

"Hopefully, in a couple of days, mare-restore na," he added.

On Wednesday, Meralco said Glenda knocked out power lines involving up to 90 percent of its franchise areas, which include Metro Manila, and parts of Cavite, Laguna and Bulacan.
 
The eye of Glenda, the strongest storm to hit the country this year, passed south of Manila after cutting a path across the main island of Luzon, toppling trees and cutting off power lines, causing electrocutions and widespread blackouts. — Joel Locsin and Amanda Fernandez /LBG, GMA News