THE Manila Electric Company (Meralco) on Tuesday reported that it has restored electricity service to nearly all customers that were affected by service interruptions brought heavy rains and flooding in its franchise area.
‘Our crews and field personnel are working overtime to address concerns and safely restore power in areas affected by the Habagat. Rest assured that we will not stop until service is restored to the last affected customer,’ Meralco Vice President and Head of Corporate Communications Joe R. Zaldarriaga said.
As of 9:00 a.m. on August 18, customers affected by power outages are down to the last 2,000 from the 10,000 reported the day before, which were mostly affected by flooding. Majority of the remaining affected customers are in the provinces of Cavite and Quezon.
Meralco is still closely monitoring the weather conditions following the state weather bureau’s pronouncements that rains are expected to persist throughout the week.
Meanwhile, Meralco-through One Meralco Foundation (OMF)-also mobilized employee-volunteers for relief efforts to help communities severely affected by the Habagat. The Foundation has so far provided assistance to over 1,400 families in the provinces of Bulacan and Cavite.
Meanwhile, the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) has placed Visayas on red alert from 3:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Tuesday.
The red alert status is issued when power supply is insufficient to meet consumer demand and the transmission grid’s regulating requirement.
From 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. and from 9:00 p.m. to 10 p.m., the Visayas power grid is on yellow alert. the NGCP said the grid’s operating margin is insufficient to meet the transmission grid’s contingency requirement.
Available capacity stood at 2,410 megawatts (MW) while peak demand reached 2,502MW.
There are eight power plants are on forced outage this month, one plant since July, three plants since June, seven plants since May, one plant since March, three plants since 2025, two plants since 2024, two plants since 2023, and one plant since 2021, while 13 plants are running on derated capacities, for a total of 836.9MW unavailable to the grid.