Alternative power sources like solar and wind energy might prove valuable to the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) especially during times of calamity when it needs to render continuous service.

MMDA Chairman Oscar Inocentes said that he has instructed agency officials to find feasible options and study the use of solar panels and windmills in order to ensure the “uninterrupted operations” of the agency.

“We should always be on top of the situation and it is important for us to provide continuous service because the public’s safety and welfare is at stake,” said the MMDA head honcho.

Inocentes issued the directive to study alternative power sources at unexpected visit to the metropolis earlier this week. Basyang, which battered Metro Manila last Tuesday, caused a Luzon-wide blackout which lasted at least two days.

Inocentes, a retired trial court judge, said that the power outage paralyzed the agency’s operations.

“The generators we have at the Communications and Command Center were of no use to our monitoring efforts because the closed-circuit television cameras installed along the the heels of typhoon Basyang’s major thoroughfares were not functioning (because of the blackout),” he pointed out.

Aside from causing the massive blackout, Basyang, with its strong winds, also left several cities covered with litter and other debris, which were subsequently cleaned up by the MMDA.

Meanwhile, MMDA Deputy Chairman Cesar Lacuna said the Unified Vehicle Volume Reduction Program (UVVRP) or number coding scheme would be automatically suspended if and when there is another power blackout in the entire Metro Manila.

Lacuna made the clarification after the agency received numerous queries from the public on whether or not the number coding scheme was lifted after Basyang’s wrath.

The official noted that the blackout halted the operations of the light and metro rail transit systems, stranding hundreds of motorists in the process.