Power blackout hits Luzon due to outage in five power plants

Metro Manila and other Meralco franchise areas in Luzon was hit by a widespread power outage on Wednesday May 8, 2013. After the outage, the LRT lines 1 and 2 raise the code red at 2 p.m. all trains were put on hold and no entry in all stations, LRTA spokesman Hernando Cabrera tweeted. Operation resumed at around 5:55 p.m.

The power outage was caused by interruption of service in five plants supplying power to the Luzon grid.

National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) said on Twitter a total of 3,700 megawatts went offline, and it had no timetable when power would be restored. They assured the public that its transmission lines are secure and fully functional

Dina Lomotan, spokesperson of Meralco said that they resorted to load dropping in some areas, and making sure critical facilities like Malacañang and the LRT are spared from the effects of the outage. However, power was cut in both anyway.

Meralco tweeted:

"Several transmission lines tripped out due to still undetermined cause, resulting in the isolation of Sta. Rita, San Lorenzo, Calaca, Ilijan, QPPL [Quezon Power Plant Philippines, Ltd.] and Sual 1 power plants. Meralco is closely coordinating with NGCP on the matter."

As of 5:30 p.m. Meralco said the power shortage was down to 900 megawatts. "We're slowly restoring as the power is coming in,"adding that full restoration is expected in affected areas in Metro Manila, Bulacan, Rizal, Cavite and Laguna within the day.

source GMA News