The National Grid Corp. of the Philippines (NGCP) raised a red alert status in Luzon yesterday from 10 am to 5 pm, and a yellow alert status from 6 pm to 12 am.

“Luzon grid is on red alert due to zero operating reserves and yellow alert due to lower level operating reserves brought about by insufficient power supply from generating plants,” the grid operator said.

NGCP said the available capacity was a 9, 030 megawatts (MW), with peak demand projected to reach 8, 564 MW.

Manila Electric Co. (Meralco) said the 300-MW Calaca plant went down at 2:18 am yesterday while the Malaya 1 plant had a fuel oil heater tube leak. This caused the company to implement rotating brownouts for two to three hours in its franchise area from 10 am to 6 pm.

Energy secretary Alfonso Cusi recently asked the Energy Regulatory Commission (ERC) to investigate into the power outages in the Luzon grid for possible anti-competitive behavior by the industry players, as well as any possible violations of the Electric Power Industry Reform Act of 2001, or EPIRA.

It has also prompted Senate Minority Leader Ralph Recto to issue a resolution prompting the ERC to look into the power supply situation of the region.