The energy sector is working on formulating measures to lessen the impact of power supply shortage in the grid, Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi said.
The Department of Energy (DOE) chief said he met with the National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) and the Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) to determine measures to avoid power interruptions and shortages.
Cusi said these measures will be put in place to “mitigate the effects to the public and while awaiting for affected power plants to be synchronized to the grid.”
Consumers will be urged to conserve more energy, distribution utilities to encourage participation in the Interruptible Load Program (ILP), the NGCP will increase its electricity imports from Visayas, and Meralco will explore sourcing power from diesel-powered plants.
“In the long term, the DOE will require a more efficient synchronization of the system and a more accurate data to determine the needed supply,” Cusi said.
Meanwhile, the NGCP placed Luzon on a yellow alert status from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Monday “due to lower level ancillary services (AS) brought about by insufficient power supply from generating plants.”
The yellow alert status is expected to last the whole week. The agency said that Luzon only had 9, 591 megawatts (MW) and peak demand was at 9, 073 MW.
A yellow alert status means that a grid’s power supply is below the minimum level of 647 MW, the equivalent capacity of the largest unit of an operating power plant.
Meralco said that outage of plants caused the yellow alert. Among them are Angat 2, Ilijan B, Limay 2, Malaya 1, Pagbilao 2, SLTEC 1, Sta. Rita mod. 20 and QPPL. Calaca 1, Limay plants, and Malaya 2 ran under limited output.