AROUND 397,000 customers in areas served by Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) have been affected by Severe Tropical Storm Trami, locally known as Kristine, the power distributor said on Thursday.
In a statement as of 12 noon, Meralco said that most of the affected customers were from the provinces of Cavite and Laguna and some in parts of Rizal, Quezon, and Batangas. The rest were in Metro Manila and Bulacan.
The number of affected customers has gone down from around 535,000 reported earlier in the morning.
Meralco Vice-President and Head of Corporate Communications Joe R. Zaldarriaga said in a briefing that most of the outages were due to strong wind causing the trees to fall, which affected some of the distribution utility’s facilities.
Meanwhile, there are still some transmission lines across Luzon and Visayas that have been affected by the severe tropical storm, according to the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP).
There are seven 69-kilovolt (kV) transmission lines in Luzon that were unavailable as of 1 p.m., one of which has been partially energized. For Visayas, two 69-kV lines were unavailable but have been partially energized.
“NGCP has mobilized its line crews and is currently conducting patrols. Simultaneous restoration activities are also being conducted in areas already accessible,” the grid operator said. — Sheldeen Joy Talavera
