BLACKOUT

A massive power outage hit the whole of Luzon yesterday — the third time in six months — leaving millions of people sweltering in the late summer heat and stranding thousands in the light railway stations for hours.

Electricity was cut at 10:57 a.m., affecting around 40 million people and inflicting significant damage to commercial life in Metro Manila and surrounding areas. The Philippine Stock Exchange was forced to halt trading at 11:30 a.m.

As of 8 last night, power had been restored to about 75 percent of the country’s main island.

National Power Corp. (Napocor) officials said a series of transmission line failures had knocked off three baseload power plants at 10:57 a.m.

Napocor senior power specialist Ronnie Santiago said the transmission line tripping was caused by a power line carrier failure at the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco)-owned Sta. Rosa sub-station in Laguna. A PLC is a communication system that signals breakers to open when there is a problem in the line.

Santiago said the transmission line breakdown was caused by a “spurious signal” sent to the so-called power line carrier which is connected directly to the transmission line of Napocor.

Napocor OIC-president Roland Quilala said they have yet to determine the source of the signal, which apparently caused the tripping in the transmission line.

Yesterday’s power outage was the fourth blackout in 13 months, and came as President Arroyo was on a visit to Japan pleading for more investments.

In November last year, a five-hour blackout that affected millions of people on Luzon hit only hours after the President left for a trip for Brunei to attend an ASEAN Leaders’ summit.

Power was restored to “more than 50 percent” of Napocor service areas by mid-afternoon yesterday, but large parts of Manila were still without electricity, Napocor spokesman Dennis Gana said.

Energy Secretary Vincent Perez said they hope to fully restore power by 6 p.m.

Meanwhile, Vice President Teofisto Guingona said the blackout was not connected with the restoration of the collection of the controversial purchased power adjustment (PPA).

Metro Manila remained calm amid the massive blackout, but tempers flared in the domestic and international airports as hundreds of departing and arriving passengers sweated it out following failure of the air-conditioning systems in the facilities.

The power outage came on the heels of a National Transmission Co. (Transco) promise to make blackouts “a thing of the past” by solving transmission line problems, including pilferage of high tension wires.

In a recent memorandum to Perez, Transco president Asisclo Gonzaga said their upgrading of a number of transmission lines has made them “confident of a robust, more stable and reliable Luzon grid.”