Power retailer Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) apologized over the weekend for the power outage at the NAIA Terminal 3 due to the accidental fault of its subsidiary Meralco Energy Inc.
“We are issuing this statement to confirm that MServ, in the presence of MIAA personnel, was conducting testing activities of NAIA Terminal 3’s electrical facilities when the brief power outage occurred last Friday,” Meralco spokesman Joe Zaldarriaga said.
He said MServ, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Meralco, is doing the activity as part of the comprehensive technical audit aimed at improving NAIA Terminal 3’s electrical system following the outage that hit the airport terminal last May 1.
“According to an incident report submitted to airport authorities, an MServ personnel accidentally left grounding conductors attached to electrical equipment during a testing activity, which triggered an electrical fault at 12:50 p.m. that subsequently caused the power interruption of NAIA Terminal 3’s facilities on June 9,” Zaldarriaga said.
He said the affected facilities were immediately isolated, and power was restored at 1:29 p.m. of the same day. Meralco also dispatched crew on site to assist MServ and MIAA.
Zaldarriaga said part of the incident report submitted were specific recommendations to ensure smoother conduct of succeeding audit and testing activities of NAIA Terminal 3’s facilities.
“These include, among others, the strict implementation of toolbox meeting among MIAA, MServ, and Meralco prior to any activity, and conduct of thorough joint inspection of work area prior to energization of facilities being tested,” he said.
“We would like to apologize for the inconvenience the power interruption last Friday caused,” Zaldarraiga said.
He assured MIAA, the Department of Transportation, and the commuting public that measures are being undertaken to prevent a similar incident from happening again.
“We remain committed to working with the government in its transportation infrastructure development efforts,” Zaldarraiga said.