News update Blackout is Luzon-wide--NGCP

MANILA, Philippines (1st UPDATE) - The Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) hopes to restore power in large parts of its franchise area within the day after the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) announced that all its substations in Metro Manila are "already energized."

In an interview with abs-cbnNEWS.com, Joe Zaldarriaga, Meralco spokesman, said the power distributor is working on restoring power, and expects that power will be back in most of its franchise area within the day.

As of 9 a.m, the NGCP said it had "energized" all its substations in Metro Manila, including Araneta, Duhat, Balintawak, and Sucat.

The NGCP said it was "still working on looping, synchronizing the system."

The transmission lines cut along Sucat-Araneta were being repaired, it said.

The NGCP said its crew was on patrol to assess the condition of transmission lines around Luzon.

An earlier statement from the NGCP said the "restoration of the Luzon power system is ongoing."

"Many power lines, both from the transmission and distribution side, might have been affected by the typhoon so it might take awhile to finish restoration," the NGCP added.

The typhoon made landfall in Quezon province on Tuesday night.

Weather bureau PAGASA reported in its 4 a.m. weather update that Basyang was located 90 kilometers west of Metro Manila. It was moving west northwest at a speed of 22 kilometers per hour, packing maximum sustained winds of 95 kph and gusts of up to 120 kph.

Storm Signal No. 1 was hoisted over Metro Manila, Batangas, Laguna, northern Quezon including Polillo Island, Rizal, Cavite including Lubang Island, Bulacan, Bataan, Pampanga, Zambales, Tarlac, Nueva Ecija, Aurora, and Pangasinan.