MANILA, Philippines – The five-hour power outage at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 (NAIA-3) on Saturday night was not caused by a technical glitch at the airport substation of the Manila Electric Co., Meralco spokesman Joe Zaldarriaga said yesterday.
He explained that Meralco personnel inspected the site and found no problem with the substation circuits, leading them to conclude that the problem lies with the NAIA and its system.
“Our team’s inspection revealed that Meralco has nothing to do with the power outage at the NAIA Terminal 3 for five hours,” Zaldarriaga said.
The Meralco inspection team, he said, arrived at the NAIA substation at around 1 a.m. yesterday to conduct inspection and repairs on wirings that could have caused the power outage but found nothing wrong with the facility.
He also said that establishments near the terminal did not have the same problem, suggesting that the fault lies with the NAIA.
Zaldarriaga pointed out that Meralco has jurisdiction only up to the metering point. Beyond that, the responsibility rests with the customer.
NAIA 3 lost its power at 8:45 p.m. Saturday and regained it about 2 a.m. of Sunday. An initial report blamed a technical glitch as the culprit.
Although Zaldarriaga confirmed that the lines tripped, he clarified that this lasted only less than a minute.
“Further power outage at the terminal was caused by load pressure from the internal electrical facilities,” he said. – With Danessa Rivera