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July 16, 2010
MANILA – Power retailer Manila Electric Company (Meralco) said Thursday that 4.4 million of their customers are now with electricity restored following the blackout that hit the Luzon grid due to typhoon ‘Basyang.’ According to Joe Zaldarriaga, Meralco’s external communications chief, of the 683 distribution circuits, about 97 percent or 664 have been energized. Likewise, 91 out of the 92 or 99 percent of their subtransmission lines and 109 out of 112 (97 percent) substations have been energized.
Meralco has a total of 4.7 million customers. “If a customer, therefore, notices that power has already been restored in their neighborhood but their residence continues to be without electricity, then this may be due to a localized trouble. “This may be caused by a problem specific to the line connecting to them, among other possibilities. An example of this may be a downed pole or branches of trees hanging on electric lines. In such isolated cases, the customer can report their concern to our Call Center at 16211 and we’ll take appropriate actions to resolve the problem.”
But Zaldarriaga assured that Meralco crew still continue to work double time to be able to complete restoration at the soonest time possible. As of press time, the following are the percentages of Meralco customers per area that have power at the circuit level: Batangas – 96 percent; Bulacan – 95 percent; Cavite – 91 percent; Laguna – 97 percent; Metro Manila – 93 percent; Pampanga – 95 percent; Quezon – 96 percent, and; Rizal – 88 percent.