The delayed completion of repair works at the San Jose-Tayabas transmission line of the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines (NGCP) has been delaying power restoration in Metro Manila areas because this shackles grid synchronization of three baseload power plants in the south.

The plants that cannot come in yet include the 1,200-megawatt Ilijan natural gas-fired power facility, 735-MW Pagbilao and 460-MW Quezon coal-fired power plants; hence, stretching the occurrence of power interruptions in the metropolis.

Manila Electric Company (Meralco) promised supply restoration in Metro Manila evening of Thursday, but the firm’s external communications manager Joe Zaldarriaga emphasized “that everything will depend on the load that will be wheeled into our network by NGCP provided all repair works have already been completed on their damaged lines.”

For Pagbilao plant, it was gathered that there was damage in the line/substation connected to the facility; while Quezon Power is waiting for the system operator’s go-signal for them to be synchronized to the grid.

In a statement, NGCP noted that it has already completed 50-percent of the needed replacements on cut/damaged conductors along San Jose-Tayabas line; and that repair works will be concluded 12noon Thursday.

See also: Brace for 3 days of darkness

NGCP noted the repair works do not have effect on the power plants’ synchronization, but the facility operators dispelled that claim.

“NGCP is just waiting for generation to come in. We can accommodate 1,200MW of Ilijan today before noon,” the company added.

The power outages also caused weak cellular signals from the country's mobile phone networks.

See: Telecom service hit