Luzon placed on red alert as power supply drops

MANILA, Philippines — The National Grid Corp. of the Philippines on Friday afternoon declared red alert for Luzon, which signifies that power demand is higher than the available supply.

Department of Energy Undersecretary Mylene Capongcol said that red alert was declared from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. in Luzon after some hydropower units and state-owned Malaya oil thermal reduced their capacity.

Capongcol said that Malaya reduced power output from 350 megawatts (MW) to 130 MW while three hydropower units — Ambuklao unit three and Kalayaan units three and four — went offline. The capacity of the three hydropower plants was at 395 MW.

The power demand reached 9,746 MW on Friday afternoon while supply only amounted to 9,771 MW, Capongcol said.

Manila Electric Co., Luzon's largest distribution utility, is also set to implement rotating brownouts and has tapped Interruptible Load Program participants to start de-loading their demand.

Meanwhile, Meralco said that its power deficiency at 1 p.m. was at 30 MW, 2 p.m. at 200 to 220 MW, and 3 p.m. at 160 MW.

Seven power units of Manila Electric Co. were offline — hydro-power Kalayaan units three and four, coal-fired Pagbilao one, oil-fired Malaya one, hydro-power Magat units three and four and hydro-power Botocan two.

Coal-fired Calaca unit one and two also reported that it has reduced its capacity.

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