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Typhoon Ulysses (international name: Vamco) has destroyed 32 power transmission lines in Luzon and disrupted services for up to 3.8 million customers in the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) franchise alone.
The National Network Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) said that as of 1 pm Thursday, there were no power lines available in parts of Bicol, Calabarzon, Central Luzon and the Cordillera Administrative Region.
Even then, NGCP has brought a total of eight 69 kilovolt lines back online at Sorsogon, Albay, Camarines Sur, Quezon, Batangas and Laguna.
In southern Luzon, there were six affected 69 kV lines supplying electricity from power plants to distribution services in other parts of Batangas, Quezon, Camarines Sur and Albay. In northern Luzon, 13 69 kV lines suffered cuts, interrupting the supply flow in Montaña Province, Benguet, Tarlac, Pangasinan, Zambales, Nueva Ecija and Pampanga.
In addition, the main transmission lines that deliver electricity over longer distances, such as the 500 kV San José-Tayabas line; the 115 kV Dasmarinas-Rosario line in Cavite; and 11 230 kV lines in Central Luzón, Calabarzon and Bicol were also not available.
“Inspection and restoration of lines in the affected areas will be in full swing as soon as weather permits,” NGCP said in a statement.
The grid operator reiterated that there may be cases where a transmission line has been restored but the surrounding area remains without electricity services because the local distribution grid suffered damage.
According to Meralco, the effects of Ulises were felt in its franchise areas, which extend north to parts of Pampanga and south to parts of Quezón province, unlike the aftermath of several previous typhoons.
As of 12 noon on Thursday, Meralco has reduced the number of customers still without power to 1.9 million, including 760,000 customers in Metro Manila.
Meralco spokesman Joe Zaldarriaga told a news conference that Metro Manila was hit the hardest, with outages affecting more than a million customers.
The power distributor had to deploy crews to restore services in various parts of Bulacan, Cavite, Rizal, Batangas and Quezon.
“We hope to restore services in many affected areas on a consistent basis, but those in areas where it can be dangerous to restore may have to wait longer,” he said.
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